Japanese, Chinese researchers to join ICU for Gandhara Studies

PESHAWAR: Islamia College University (ICU) Vice-Chancellor Dr Habib Ahmed on Tuesday said the Japanese and Chinese researchers would join the institution for post-doctoral and doctoral research from the next session. He shared this information during his speech at the fifth convocation at the historic Roose Keppel Hall here.

Around 160 graduates of the 2014-16 academic session received degrees. Five PhD and 15 MPhil were also given away degrees. About 30 graduates were awarded gold medals for outstanding performance.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, who was the chief guest on the occasion, conferred degrees upon the graduates and gold medals on the excelling ones. He also awarded shields to the faculty members for the academic services and research.

Earlier, Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Habib Ahmed received the chief guest. The chancellor opened the convocation after recitation from the Holy Quran. Dr Habib Ahmed in his opening remarks said digitisation of the university had been started and it would soon be connected with the outside world.

The vice-chancellor added that a master plan had been finalised for taking the institution to new horizons and disclosed that the roadmap for development had been put in place for promoting research culture. Dr Habib Ahmed said the administration had conducted academic and security audit of the ICU. "The ICU administration has started ranking of the institution by the international monitors. The QS World University Rankings has ranked ICU at the 9,922 position among the world universities," he added. He expressed the hope that the university would soon find a place in the top 1,000 universities.

"Since its establishment in 2008, the students and faculty members are working hard to bring the university on a par with world's leading universities," the vice-chancellor remarked. He disclosed that Japanese and Chinese students would soon join the University for post-doctoral and doctoral research at the newly established Centre for Gandhara Studies.

Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra greeted the students and their parents on successfully completing their studies. The governor said he was impressed by the achievements of the girl students and stated that he was delighted to see the female students getting most of the gold medals. "This institution is a torch-bearer of the Two Nation Theory and has played a pivotal role in the enlightenment movement for more than 100 years," he added. He said that Islamia College has produced capable leadership in every field during the last century.