A total of 1,598 students were awarded degrees in various disciplines at the University of Karachi’s Silver Jubilee Convocation on Saturday - 137 of them achieving the coveted gold medals.
The graduating students included 1,250 and 348 of the morning and evening sessions respectively.
The convocation was organised at the university’s Valika Ground.
In the absence of governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan, provincial education minister Nisar Ahmed Khuro was the chief guest at the event.
KU vice chancellor Dr Muhammad Qaiser presented a report on the university’s progress and the research being carried out at the campus.
Special prayers for the victims of the Shikarpur Imambargah and the Army Public School, Peshawar attacks were offered on the occasion.
One student each of MS, DSc, MPharm, Business Public Administration and BCom were among the recipients of the degrees.
A total of 129 students of BA (Honours), seven of BE Chemical Engineering, six of Bachelors in Library Information Sciences, 163 of the BS programme, 110 of BSc (Honours), 10 of BBA, 211 of MA and 36 of the MBA programme also received degrees.
Furthermore, 26 students of MCom, eight of MCS, 12 of MLIS, 16 of MPA, 290 of MSc, 106 of Phar.D, 19 of MPhill graduated.
A total of 96 students received PhD degrees.
One of the gold medalists, Ahmed Farid, who completed his MSc in Applied Mathematics, told The News that he was interested in research and wanted to register with the MPhil programme.
However, since last year, the department had not offered courses as it did not have sufficient number of students to do so.
Another gold medalist, Naseer Ahmed, who graduated from the department of Sindhi, said he was working part-time at the KU’s Shah Latif Chair.
In his speech, the KU vice chancellor said the university was planning to introduce centres of excellence in the areas of environment and health sciences, social sciences, law/ jurisprudence and business management sciences.
The priority programmes will include the construction of the University of Karachi teaching hospital for which a site has already been selected on University Road.
The construction of a technological park for the fields of physical, biological and engineering sciences is also part of the university’s agenda.
The KU has also planned the development of a technology incubation centre for the faculty members and researchers.
The setting up of a waste-water treatment plant at the Institute of Environmental Studies and the development of a Distance Learning/Online Education Programme in collaboration with foreign universities is also on the cards.
“I congratulate all the recipient of the degrees and their parents on the success of their wards. In students’ lives, the convocation is a remarkable event not only for them and the faculty but also for those responsible for looking after the institutions of higher learning,” the vice chancellor said.
“It also provides the university administration an opportunity to share with you its progress,” he added.
At present, the university has nine faculties: faculty of social sciences, faculty of education, faculty of engineering, faculty of Islamic studies, faculty of law, faculty of management and administrative sciences, faculty of medicine, faculty of pharmacy and faculty of science.
The university runs its 254 academic programmes through its 54 teaching departments and 21 research institutes and centres.
The Higher Education Commission puts the KU in third position among all the public sector general universities in the country. The QS ranking agency for Asia 2014 has graded University of Karachi between 201 and 250. The QS ranking agency has also placed the KU faculty of pharmacy between 151 and 200.
The research and academic output of the university is growing each year. Last year, the university awarded 178 PhD and 103 MPhil degrees.
At present, the Board of Advance Studies and Research has enrolled 3,485 students in various PhD programmes of the university.
chancellor said the university was planning to introduce centres of excellence in the areas of environment and health sciences, social sciences, law/ jurisprudence and business management sciences.