235 students awarded degrees at Ziauddin University Convocation

Ziauddin University Convocation, 2011, was held at Expo Center here on Tuesday, where 235 students were awarded degrees of graduation and post-graduation levels. This was the eighth convocation of the Ziauddin University after its establishment in 1995.
In 16 years, Ziauddin University currently has the Medical College, College of Pharmacy, College of Dentistry, College of Nursing and College of Speech Pathology. The College of Engineering, College of Physical Sciences and Mathematics, College of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts, College of Law and Mass Communication have been planned for a different phase.
This year, over 235 students graduated from Medical, Dental, Pharmacology, Medical Technology and Physical Therapy Colleges. The degrees awarded ranged from Bachelors in Medical Technologies, Ph D, MBBS and M Sc in Chemical Pathology. A large number of people including students, parents, faculty members, scholars, scientists and other professionals from various fields attended the event. Honour certificates and medals were given to Pharm D graduates for achieving a high CGPR. Medical graduates in MMBS, Pharm. D, and Physical Therapy, who achieved the highest ranks in professional examinations and honour certificates, were placed on the honours list.
Shahid Aziz Siddiqui, Chairman of State Life Insurance Corporation, was the chief guest. He spoke about the importance of education, professional training, and community service for the health care sector in general and Sindh in particular. His speech focused not only on acquiring the degree but he also stressed that it is more important to be "learning people" because health sciences/allied health sciences are ever-changing fields. Like a cell, they are ever-growing, ever-progressing. So, one must keep pace with these fields.
He talked about physiotherapists, pharmacists, doctors, and all other fields involved with medicine to be an important part of the society. He stressed the importance of professionalism rather than just selling service. He talked about ethics in the practice of medicine and healthcare. His focus remained towards modern technology, immunisation and their effects on levels of mortality and morbidity. In his speech he contrasted wonder drugs to gene therapy, the evolution of drugs and medicine, modern day diagnostics, therapeutic and preventive medicine. Since this is an ever-changing field of education, all the education institutes must remain connected with the needs of these young scientists so that a healthy community can be developed. For this he suggested constant revisions in curricula development.
He identified medicine and its providers to be more than just scientists, but also a humanistic factor in approaching the patients, understanding the psyche of individuals and maintaining an empathetic attitude towards patient care. He expressed his gratitude towards Ziauddin University's efforts in providing education in healthcare as it entered the 2nd decade of its existence as a University.
Dr Anwar Ejaz Beg, Vice Chancellor, welcomed and thanked all guests and congratulated the recipients of degrees, medals, and certificates. He told the audience about the history of Ziauddin and its 16 years of existence as a University. He compared it to Cambridge, Oxford and Al Azhar University, which are over a thousand years old, but he recognised the leaps and bounds by which Ziauddin University has grown in its short existence.
He said that Ziauddin Unviersity started with a postgraduate institute of medical sciences, granted its own postgraduate degrees and diplomas, became a medical university in 1995, and then a general university in December 2005. He said he was proud of the department of family medicine being fully accredited by FCPS and DFM in Family Medicine. Dr Anwar said that a residency program in the pharmacy department was introduced in 2010.
This program's focus is on advancing skills in direct patient care, and patient care service development. He talked about the academic journey which began in 1996 and currently it has developed its faculties of medicine, pharmacy, engineering, allied health sciences, nursing, dentistry, business administration, speech language therapy and physical therapy. In most of the faculties, post graduate studies leading to M Phil/MS and Ph. D. degrees are available.
The university has so far produced 11 batches of 637 MBBS students, 2 batches of 72 students with D. Pharm degree of 5-year duration, 7 batches of 179 Physiotherapists and 11 batches of 287 medical technologists. He concluded by expressing his utmost gratitude towards Ziauddin University's accomplishments in academic development.
N A Jaffrey in his key note speech shared his three commitments as core elements of professionalism. First, he said, is a commitment to a rigorous education; second to engage in professional self regulation to ensure the quality of one's service; and third is the placement of society's wellbeing above own financial self-interest.
He said that the present-day exploding technology threatens the traditional obligations of caring for the patient. Humanistic principles should be applied towards patients, so as to be sensitive to their needs, manage time so their waiting is minimised, respect their dignity and pride in office, understand and meet their and their family's desire for information and respect their right to choose. He wished all families ,parents and relatives great happiness and wellbeing.
Dr Asim Hussain, Chancellor of Ziauddin University, in his message congratulated the graduates on successfully completing the prescribed curricular requirements and received their degrees. "This graduation no doubt is an important milestone in your academic pursuits but should not be perceived as your final professional destination", he said in his massage, read out by the Vice Chancellor of the university. "I hope you will continue with your academic endeavours with the same zeal and dedication", he added.