CECOS committed to provide high quality education services of international standards

Professor Dr. Riaz A. Khattak is serving the university as a vice chancellor since 2012. During his tenure, CECOS has made an outstanding progress and has secured a unique place and international reputation through his ability to combine excellence, creativity & intellectual rigor with agility, professionalism & sustainability.

He graduated from Peshawar University as a gold medallist and President’s of Pakistan Award and holds a PhD and Post Doctorate in Soil Science and Environment from University of California, USA.

In an interview with the VC Professor Dr. Riaz A. Khattak he gave comprehensive answers of the questions regarding the CECOS:

Q: What is the vision and mission of CECOS and what do you think is its competitive edge as an educational institute?

A: CECOS is committed to achieve the goal of providing high quality education services of international standards with a vision of excellence in teaching and research to produce finest and competent graduates equipped with knowledge and dedication to serve the nation and capable of facing the future challenges in the field of Engineering, Architecture, Business , Computer, Biotechnology and Emerging sciences.

CECOS is a research based university that offers experiences and enables discovery, and promotes creativity and research with focus on quality to attain a distinct recognition in international community as a centre of excellence, known as creativity , innovation, public services and knowledge, dissemination  and  communication . We are committed to disseminating knowledge and fostering critical thinking that encourages life-long learning. Our mode of studies creates new knowledge methods, forms a basis for innovative solutions, and makes substantial contributions to society. Our vision is to maintain values such as integrity, diversity, merit and quality in all sphere of life to ensure socio-economic, technological and industrial growth and development in the highly competitive global environment.

Q: What programmes have recently added and tell us about faculty at CECOS?

A: CECOS is a forward looking and progressive dynamic institution and highly responsive to the fast growing and changing market needs. We started PhD degrees in Civil and Electrical engineering and Management Sciences apart from MS level programs in all other disciplines. Institute of Integrative Biosciences, recently established awards degrees in biosciences and bioinformatics. Our Architecture Program is the only leading program in private sector in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP)

CECOS has a staff of 290 members including 150 full time well qualified, dedicated and energetic faculty members. Among these there are more than 20 PhD’s and MS’s including Foreign Graduates from leading universities of the world.

Q: Why CECOS claims to be a leading university in KP’s private sector, what makes it different from other universities?

A: What makes us different is our practices and beliefs, Here at CECOS we believe in learning through an effective class room model that focuses not only on the theoretical aspects of the subject but on the practical side of it as well, framing through real solutions and shaping up the knowledge into action.  The value of CECOS is defined by the caliber of the faculty that we have, the intensity of the research conducted, and the whip-smart intelligence of the students.

Also, we never compromise on merit and our students are left with the only option of hard work with right attitude leading to success. CECOS is one of the pioneer universities in the private sector of KP producing highly competent graduates for the last 30 years, I think the experience itself and the standard and quality of alumni that we have, speaks of what we claim of. Equally important is the fact that the CECOS as a University did not emerge overnight rather it travelled through a long (30 years) tortuous path of struggle, hard work and herculean efforts of Engr. Muhammad Tanveer Javed with vision for establishing center of excellence in higher education in KP to meet the needs of the province and nation at large. Under his leadership and guidance, the key to our success is the policy of merit, transparency, team work, values, service to humanity as priority and having zero tolerance for plagiarism and absenteeism.

Q: How would you describe your four years journey with CECOS?

A: This is indeed a fantastic question. Let me tell you that when I joined CECOS it has almost all the fundamental components needed for a university, I observed phenomenal scope and prospects of growth and development to auger and unravel both in terms of challenges and opportunities. I identified and fixed my priorities on measures essentials for world Class University with the support and assistance of my team. I strengthened the directorate of research and development, quality assurance, quality enhancement, faculty development and enhanced the extent of faculty incentives. I am proud to state that I managed to hire the best faculty members with highest qualification from all over the world. Today we have PhD and post doctorate from top universities of UK, US, Europe, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Japan and Malaysia in the field of engineering, management sciences, computer sciences and biotechnology. The recent focus on synthetic biotechnology and cancer research will take CECOS to new heights of international fame.