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Sunday, December 18, 2011
9,558 students awarded degrees at KU convocationStaff Report
KARACHI: The University of Karachi (KU) in its annual convocation held here on Saturday awarded degrees to its 9,558 students who passed their graduation, masters and PhD programme examinations.
KU Pro Vice-Chancellor and Senior Education Minister Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq in his presidential address congratulated the successful candidates, their parents and teachers. He said that good teachers produce better generation, adding that the passing students would illuminate Sindh with education.
He elaborated that their government and coalition partners were in accord on the point that there should be no compromise on education and all the teachers from primary to university level be appointed on pure merit basis.
KU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui said that the University of Karachi holds an exclusive position among the world’s universities.
He elaborated that a total of 5,602 students had passed their graduation and masters in 2010, which was a significant increase from the previous 3,718 passouts of 2009. He said that 238 fellows were conferred PhD degrees during 2010-11.
Prof Siddiqui said that KU had over 60 years of experience of anticipation and responding to change and this research contributed to a deeper understanding of issues that affect the entire nation.
He said that the curricula of various departments at KU included the latest professional knowledge, which ensures a prominent status to its alumni in the industry and other professions.
He elaborated that almost 1,207 PhD degrees, including DSc and DLitt had been awarded till 2008, whereas this number has reached up to 1,550 PhD digress in 2011.
Prof Siddiqui said that according to Times Higher Education-Quacquarelli Symonds, the University of Karachi holds 138th position among the top 425 universities of Asia.
The convocation underwent an unpleasant event when the Bachelor of Studies (BS) programme position holders chanted slogans against the non-provision of medals. BS Evening Programme, Department of Sociology’s position holder Zaheer Abbas alleged that the university management told them (the students) that they would not be given medals since there was no sponsor. “The University management told us that the position holders of MA and MSc programmes will only be conferred gold medals”, he added. BS Department of Petroleum’s position holder, Syeda Mehwish, said that the KU management had gone to the extent of offering her a switch to MSc programme if she wanted to get a gold medal.
Shazia Kazmi, a position holder of Masters of Economics & Finance, Evening Programme, expressed her disappointment saying that there was no encouragement or appreciation for the position holding students.
Haq announced Rs 1 million grant for the medals of deprived students. An honourary degree was also conferred upon Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation’s Director Dr Adib-ul-Hassan Rizvi on this occasion.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk