Islamabad: The Federal Urdu University is trying its level best to make headway, notwithstanding the odds. The university has risen rapidly in the overall ranking of the national universities, said Professor Dr. Zahid Saleem, the campus in-charge of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST).
“After gaining enough experience through learning-by-doing, the university is committed to opening campuses in all remaining provinces of Pakistan so that it can serve as strong bonding agent — one that includes rather than excludes people belonging to different areas, especially the least privileged areas in Pakistan. The best thing about this university is that all isciplines are quite affordable for students,” he stated this in an interview with ‘The News’ on Thursday.
He said in addition to that, the university is giving 100 to 200 scholarships per year to need base and merit basis. “We encourage student feedback and adopt transparency in our system. The students should know the weaknesses and strengths of their teachers hence we have accepted their tools to rectify us,” Dr. Zahid Saleem added.
This year, he said the Federal Urdu University of Arts Science and Technology (FUUAST), has been ranked 6th among public sector university in research and education, as compared to the 13th ranking it had last year. It is a major achievement realising the fact that the university does not have its own campus, but a rented building from Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).
“Still we are looking forward for the establishment of our campus so that more and more disciplines could be added to the university. We are paying Rs30 million per annum under rent to Wapda. Currently there is no space to add any department to the university and our case of acquiring new campus is still pending with the Planning Commission, but the lack of space has not hampered the performance of the university or students in anyway. State-of-the-art laboratories, library, auditorium, canteen hence everything is provided to the students alike other private universities,” he added.
Dr. Zahid Saleem said the university, which started functioning at Islamabad in 2002, has rapidly grown into a dynamic seat of learning in all the major disciplines of knowledge. It has the distinction of being assigned with the additional responsibility of promoting Urdu as a language of science and technology as well. “After beginning with only two departments, it has expanded its programme to six major disciplines — Business Administration, Economics, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Computer Sciences and Urdu. It has focused on MPhil and PhD level instructions, wherever feasible. The Economics Department, upgraded last year as School of Economic Sciences, enrols a record number of students every semester. The Electrical Engineering Department takes pride in its state-of-the-art infrastructure necessary for undertaking quality research and teaching.
While talking about ‘The News’ Education Expo, he said that it is a best opportunity for students to interact with different universities under one roof. “The students can make the comparison among the university and get first hand information regarding their education. The one who knows the exact way leading to his career is successful in life,” he said.
Professor Dr. Zahid Saleem said that in the last four years the performance of the University has been remarkable which is evident from the fact that, physical infrastructure in terms of computers, Lab Equipment and state of the art training aids has almost doubled. Currently the faculty members have increased to 170 and the 38 PhDs in a mere four years time.
Professor Dr. Zahid Saleem is Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Campus In-charge at the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, Islamabad. Earlier from March, 2007 to March, 2008, he was appointed as the Professor & Director Centre for Advanced Studies in Telecommunication (Cast) at Comsats Institute of Information Technology CIIT. He founded Cast to conduct quality research in the field of Telecommunication with the aim of solving technical problems confronting Telecommunication sector and to provide high quality post graduate education and training PhD in Electronic System Engineering from University of Essex, UK, in the field of optical communication systems ‘Characterization of polarisation noise in coherent optical fibre communication systems’ in 1991.
Courtesy: THE NEWS
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