GCU offers admission to 11 language courses

LAHORE :First time in its history, Government College University (GCU) has offered admissions to students in 11 foreign and national language courses, including Hindi, French, Russian, Turkish and German.

A notification in this regard has been issued on the direction of Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi who believes in promoting effective engagement of youths in academic as well as co-curricular activities.

Prof Zaidi said that in European countries students took a gap year and spent a whole year engaging in a mixture of language lessons and cultural course to improve their life skills. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, the VC, said the students who got the gap year due to supplementary examinations or other reasons wasted their precious time on social media or in other non-productive activities due to lack of opportunities.

“So, we have decided to open admissions in the language communication skills courses which were specially designed to focus on refining the students' communicative ability with emphasis on listening, speaking, reading and writing skills,” Prof Zaidi said. He added that the courses would be taught through lectures, group discussions, extensive writing activities, simulations, audio-visual aids and student presentations.

Prof Zaidi said that classes were scheduled for the evening, so that regular university students and professionals from different fields could also join the courses. The VC said fee for these three-month language courses each was kept nominal i.e. between Rs 5,000 to Rs. 15,000 so that maximum number of students could benefit from them.

According to the notification, GCU Lahore has opened admission to Arabic, English, French, German, Hindi, Persian, Punjabi, Turkish, Russian and Urdu language courses. The last date to apply is January 20, 2020 while the classes would commence from next month. The schedule for the Chinese language course would be announced separately.

exhibition: The final-year students of Government College University's Fine Arts Department Friday put on display promotional and awareness campaigns on different brands and social issues as their semester thesis.

Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi inaugurated the thesis display at the university’s Abdus Salam Hall, while Fine Arts Department Chairperson Prof Dr Erfan Ullah Babar was also present. Twenty students of Bachelors in Fine Arts (Hons) displayed their projects which comprised complete promotional material including mobile applications, calendars, pamphlets, press and electronic media advertisement and social media pages for promotion of their brands and raising awareness about social issues. The campaigns on social issues including Condemnation of Social Standards by Hafiza Haifza and Human Mind Manipulation by Mahnoor Sohail remained the centre of attraction at the exhibition. The exhibition also included a new food chain idea “Khaabay Online Homemade Food” by Nageen Hassan and a unique style wedding decoration “Warda Decor” by Warda Noor. Pof Zaidi visited the stalls and discussed with the students the aesthetics and scope of their projects.

He appreciated that GCU BFA students were highly creative and had adopted a comprehensive and ambitious approach for the success of their campaigns. Professionals from different national and multinational companies also visited the project display exhibition and appreciated the work of students.