100 earn gold medals: 9,700 Karachi University students awarded degrees

Some 9,700 graduates of the 2010-11 batch of Karachi University were conferred degrees at the annual convocation held at the varsity, here on Saturday. However, only 1,875 students got themselves enrolled for participating at convocation ceremony. Of them, 100 students topped to earn gold medals.
Subjects in which students earned degrees are BA (Hons), BSc (Hons), D.Pharm, BBA, BCT, BPA, BCOM, BS, MPA, MCOM, MA, M.Sc, MCS, MBA, MLIS, MS, M.Phil, Ph.D, D.Lit, D.Sc and evening programme. The university also awarded an honorary degree of B.Sc to the prominent figure of the country, Professor Dr Adeeb-ul-Hassan Rizvi for his countless services.
The convocation was scantily marred by the incensed group of position holders of the BS Programme for not conferring gold medals on them, thus turning the event proceedings out of the ordinary. Students, who took degrees of BS in the relevant subjects, staged protest during the ceremony against the neglect by the administration. They said gold medals were not conferred on the students who had been enrolled under the four-year BS programme.
The position holders of BS programme culminated protest when Senior Minister Sindh, Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq who was present there a chief guest intervened and announced he would ensure that all position holder graduates of BS programme would be conferred with gold medals. He even assured them that his department would grant Rs 10 lac (1.0 million) for the purpose.
Addressing the ceremony, Mazhar-ul-Haq said that the country is passing through a crucial time, but the new educated generation can change the fate of the country. He appreciated the role of university in imparting standard education among the young students. He extended his heartiest greetings to Professor Adeeb-ul-Hassan Rizvi on the honorary degree awarded to him by University of Karachi. His efforts are indeed noteworthy and he deserves to be honoured with praise and rewards, he said.
He hoped the graduating students would surely flourish their homeland with creative thinking and innovation. Earlier, in his address Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui said the university is among one of the largest higher education institutions in Pakistan. "At present research is conducted under nine well- developed faculties including Faculty of Arts, Special Education, Engineering, Islamic Studies, Law, Management and Administrative Sciences, Medicine, Pharmacy and Faculty of Science," the vice chancellor maintained.
He said the university is running 54 different teaching departments, 21 research institutes and centers of excellence. "The leading departments and centre of the excellence are imparting standard education to about 24000 students," he said. He said the university is also performing its function as affiliating and examining body for 145 government and private colleges. "Each year the university conducts examinations of about 150,000 students studying in these colleges," he added.
Highlighting the significance of the university, he said a large number of scientists and scholars affiliated with the university hold important positions in different public and private sector organisations within and outside the country. "The students from several foreign countries are pursuing doctorate and post-doctoral programs in International Centre of Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), a center designated WHO centre for Pesticides Analysis for Eastern Mediterranean, COMSATS, TWAS and NCSTD centres of excellence," he noted.
"Till today, the university has awarded 1550 Ph.D degrees in different disciplines since its inception, he said, adding that presently more than 2600 students are enrolled for M.S and Ph.D programs." Recently, the faculty of science has set an excellent publication record in national and international journals, he said.
He apprised the Times Higher Education (THE) has conducted a random survey, where the university occupied 223rd place in the field of natural sciences around the globe and first position in the country. "The QS World University Ranking 2011 placed university in the list of 600 top universities," he reminded.
Pirzada Qasim said that to meet the challenges of globalisation and in order to satisfy the demands of the 21st century, University of Karachi has planned to internationalise its educational programs by establishing its foreign campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. The arrangement for Dubai campus is in meaningful progress and the project will soon be finalised, he added. He said that KU has successfully manage to keep the process of development continued
He extended his felicitations to the graduating students who have successfully completed a major phase of their life. Meanwhile, spokesman Karachi University said that many top achievers fail to get a medal only because they or their respective department chairperson and teachers couldn't find a sponsor.
It is worth noting here that more than 1,700 students got admissions in the BS morning programme in the faculties of science and arts in 2007. They graduated in 2010 and of them, only 543 opted for conversion of the programme to the previously run Masters/Honours programme.