Universities in Pakistan

**hermald_eyes** · 10-21-2011,08:13 PM

Universities in Pakistan

Innumerable seats of learning for higher studies exist throughout Pakistan, with a wide range of faculties offering a huge selection of Bachelor and Masters’ level courses to study. In fact, the gateway ‘The International Colleges & Universities’ website lists 117 universities and colleges offering higher levels of education in Pakistan. The second largest university in Asia is the University of Agriculture, situated in Faisalabad. The UAF, as it is affectionately known, evolved from the Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute which was originally founded in 1906. Due to widespread agriculture still the prevailing economy in Pakistan despite its burgeoning industrialization in more recent years, the National Commissions on Food and Education established an overriding need for agricultural studies to continue in Pakistan.

As a result, the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad [UAF] was inaugurated in the academic year, 1961 to 1962. Since then the UAF has gone from strength to strength, with at least 50% of its many staff members holding Ph.D qualifications of their own. The various faculties are spread throughout two campuses: the main campus site in Faisalabad and the secondary campus in Lahore where the College of Veterinary Sciences is housed. As a result of the popularity of the UAF courses, there are now three sub-campuses – located at Depalpur; Toba Tek Singh; and Dera Gazi Khan. The largest faculty is that of Agriculture where crop production is researched and teaching is undertaken at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Opportunities for research are important, especially relating to various livestock issues and associated products.

The Punjab University is another seat of higher learning. Consisting of the four campuses of Quaid-i-Azam; Allama Iqbal; Gujranwala; and Khanaspur, its Mission Statement claims that ‘continuous improvement is our hallmark’. The University of Central Punjab, located in Lahore, is a separate institution to the Punjab University. Meanwhile, in the state of Sindh, the Hamdard University is another campus of excellence, providing fully accredited higher education courses within eight faculties, nine institutions and three university teaching hospitals, all spread over a total area of 350 acres

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Hamdard University was established in 1991 to “prepare Pakistani youth for the challenges of tomorrow” according to Shaheed Hakim Mohammed Said, Hamdard University’s founder. Hamdard University’s main campus is located just 28km from Karachi, at Madinat al-Hikmah, near the Sindh and Balochistan borders close to the Hub River. The other campuses include the Islamabad Campus, the Karachi City Campuses, the Adamjee Nagar Campus and the P.E.C.H.S. Campus.

Included as part of the Hamdard University are the Hamdard University Teaching Hospital; the Hamdard University Dental Hospital; and the Shifa-ul-Mulk Memorial Hospital. Also associated with Hamdard University, based in Karachi, are the Hamdard School of Law; the Hamdard Education Net; and the Regional Cisco Networking Academy. Pharmaceutical sciences is taught through Hamdard University, at Islamabad, together with Management sciences and Information Technology.

Pakistan, as a country, is well endowed with excellent universities and colleges of higher education throughout each of its four provinces, including Bahauddin Zakariya University, based in Multan, that was founded in 1975; and the University of Peshawar in the State of North West of Pakistan/Sarhad [NWFP] that was founded in 1950 plus that many more spread throughout the country of Pakistan – all of which employ hundreds of very highly qualified teaching staff and research assistants and are able to offer an enormous range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a huge diversity of subjects that are particularly relevant to the development of the modern Pakistan and its citizens.