KARACHI: More than 730 students in four countries graduated from the Aga Khan University on Saturday at ceremonies attended by Princess Zahra Aga Khan and other dignitaries and watched in-person and online by the University’s supporters around the world.

“On graduating, you return to a world that is full of daunting challenges but also of endless possibilities,” she said in Nairobi, speaking on behalf of AKU’s founder and Chancellor, the Aga Khan. “Continue to strive with courage and optimism to grasp opportunities to serve your communities and contribute to a more pluralistic and peaceful world.”

391 students graduated in Pakistan – more than 70 percent of them women – and were awarded degrees in nursing, medicine and education. The University’s chief guest was Sabina Khatri, founder of the Karachi-based Kiran Foundation.

AKU commemorated its 40th anniversary on March 16, 2023. University’s 40th year was one of the most consequential in its history. Four new academic programmes welcomed their first students, increasing total enrolment to more than 3,600 for the first time in the University’s history. These are the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in Karachi, the Bachelor of Medicine, and Bachelor of Surgery programme in Nairobi and the four-year Bachelor of Science in nursing programmes in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. Construction began on the University’s new 60-acre campus in Uganda, which will feature an academic centre, student housing and a new Aga Khan University Hospital, the first AKU has built since 1985. In Nairobi, the Aga Khan University Hospital implemented East Africa’s first integrated electronic health records system. In Tanzania, the University launched the Arusha Climate and Environmental Research Centre.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024

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