Research main objective of varsities: governor

LAHORE: The 14th convocation of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) was held here Thursday in which a total of 1,761 graduates were awarded degrees.

Chancellor/Governor Punjab Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman presided over the convocation while Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Chairman Prof Dr Shahid Munir, Chinese Consul General in Lahore Mr Zhao Shiren, UVAS Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad, faculty members, syndicate members, representatives from dairy, poultry, meat, food and pharmaceutical industries were present.

Around 63 position-holders were awarded medals while out of the graduating students, 60 were awarded PhDs, 623 MPhils, 222 DVMs, 706 BS (Hons), 82 Pharm-D, one Doctor of Nutrition and Dietetics, eight MBA (Executive) and 59 BBA (Hons).

Addressing the convocation, Governor Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman congratulated the graduates and urged them to work hard and serve humanity. He lauded the progress achieved by the UVAS under the leadership of Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad. He also expressed pleasure over UVAS’s achievement of obtaining a drug manufacturing licence and its registration from DRAP for Foot & Mouth vaccine production saying this would uplift the livestock sector in the country. The governor said that the livestock sector had great potential and UVAS was playing a key role in ensuring food security and poverty reduction. He also advised students to thank their parents and teachers for their untiring efforts for their education. He said that the main objective of universities was to conduct research and Pakistani universities were producing the best researchers.

Lauding female students, the governor said it was encouraging to see that the majority of position-winning students were girls, who were proving their mettle in diverse fields, including livestock. He also condemned the terrorism and war crimes being committed by Israel in Palestine and expressed sympathy with the innocent people of Palestine.

Earlier, the Chancellor along with the UVAS Vice-Chancellor gave away degrees to PhD scholars and medals to the position-winning graduates.

Prof Nasim Ahmad spoke about the academic, research, development, extension programmes, various initiatives and community services of the university. He said that UVAS stood among top 801-1000 best universities of the world and 3rd in Punjab public sector in the Time Higher Education World University Rankings.

The VC said that UVAS was a research intensive university and currently executing 79 research projects worth over Rs1,027 million. He said two faculty members of UVAS were awarded with national patents while UVAS filed 10 more for approval. He mentioned that UVAS was executing ongoing development projects of about Rs6 billion sponsored by the HEC and the Punjab government.