Dr Jahanzeb narrates his stay and work as VC University of Swat

PESHAWAR: Dr Muhammad Jahanzeb Khan, who upon completion of his four-year tenure as the vice-chancellor of the University of Swat relinquished charge of office on December 3, has narrated his stay and work at the nascent university in a letter to his friends and colleagues.
Dr Jahanzeb was the professor of psychology, University of Peshawar when he was appointed the vice-chancellor of University of Swat on December 3, 2011 after a process of selection that took a year. Though he was the second vice-chancellor of the university, he faced a challenge to establish it on solid footing because his predecessor Dr Mohammad Farooq Khan had served briefly before he was shot dead in Mardan.
In Dr Jahanzeb’s words, “After joining I found a small establishment of seven academic programmes with around 200 students and about 35 faculty members operating in three small buildings provided on lease.”
He wrote that the first challenge was to gather a good team for making the dream of a quality university possible in Swat. “There were two tasks ahead; one was to establish a university and the second to acquire the already selected land and move on. It was difficult to attract senior and experienced people to work in this area.”
According to Dr Jahanzeb, he and his team managed to acquire land and develop a master plan and in a year’s time got the Rs1.5 billion project approved under the annual development programme. In 2014, the second part of the project worth Rs1 billion was approved under the PSDP. The same year, the university got Rs33 million for the purchase of buses to facilitate the students. The work on the various components of the “Establishment of University of Swat Phase-1” is now ongoing and the university is hoping to get funding from other sources also.
Dr Jahanzeb in his note recalled that the second challenge was to open more academic units and create academic and administrative positions from BPS-2 to BPS-21. He said despite major hurdles the recruitments were done on merit and in a transparent manner. He said the number of academic units increased from seven to 25 offering Masters, BS, M Phil and PhD programmes, including innovative disciplines relevant to the area. He noted the university has on its rolls around 3,200 students and 150 faculty members, including 40 PhDs.
The former vice-chancellor said a major achievement was the establishment of College of Home Sciences for females, which is the first of its kind in Swat and the second in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He added that University of Swat approved the establishment of a campus in Shangla district in 2013 and recently the Higher Education Commission in principle committed Rs30 million for it.
According to Dr Jahanzeb, the university reached out to the community by providing different services to students as well as the general public. These included an Assessment and Counseling Centre, a Legal Clinic, and Directorate of Outreach, Research, Innovation and Commercialization. He said the university scholars had won projects and got published in quality journals, MoUs were signed with 10 universities around the world and the library was enriched.
Dr Jahanzeb said the budget deficit was controlled despite expansion and revenue was increased significantly from own and outside sources. He added that recently the budget deficit was brought down to zero by the university’s rationalization committee.
As the university was badly hit by the recent earthquake, Dr Jahanzeb led the effort to shift to new rented buildings and made plans for pre-fabricated structures at the site of the upcoming campus in Swat’s Charbagh area.
“I feel honoured and satisfied to have served the cause of higher education in this disaster-hit valley of Swat to the best of my ability,” he concluded.