Expanding education : Approved—QAU medical, engineering colleges

Funding of Rs110 million to be borrowed from university’s endowment fund.

ISLAMABAD: Quaid-i-Azam University formally approved establishing a medical college and an engineering college. The decision was made during a university syndicate on Saturday, with funding of Rs110 million for the project to be borrowed from the university’s endowment fund.

Vice Chancellor Masoom Yasinzai chaired the meeting which was also attended by MNA Aftab Shaban Mirani, Justice (retired) Fakhar-ur-Nisa Khokhar, representatives from HEC, Ministry of Education and faculty members.

During the meeting, the academic staff opposed the method of finance to be used for the new colleges. Staff members said if the government wanted to establish a medical college in the university, they should release resources from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) instead of borrowing from the endowment fund.

Vice Chancellor Yasinzai said keeping in view the financial crunch in the country, the university will not ask for funds from the national exchequer. Instead, he said, it will generate its own resources for such projects and the revenue generated from the investment would later repay the loan to the university account.

“The project will be completed within two years,” the VC said. A 400-bed hospital will be constructed along with the medical college as well, he added.  He said the proposal would also be sent for endorsement to small bodies like the University Academic Council.

Sources said that according to university rules, approval from the academic council is necessary to begin any academic programme in the university. The Academic Council comprises all the professors of the university.

However, the VC rejected the impression, saying that the syndicate is the supreme body which could give approval for major policy decisions and the Academic Council only has a say in academic matters like curriculum, courses and studies.

He further added that people wanted to sabotage the development programmes he had started for moving the university forward. Yasinzai said that there had not been any expansion in the university since its establishment, despite availability of funds. “Some people in the university are in the habit of power wrangling rather than doing some practical work for the country’s development,” he said.

The VC said that a large number of Pakistani engineers working in the United States had agreed to finance and assist the university in establishing Quaid-i-Azam School of Engineering and Technolgy.

“I met Pakistani engineers in New York and discussed the idea of establishing a state-of-the-art engineering university here. They are fully committed to the task,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2010.