January 28, 2006	Saturday	Zilhaj 27, 1426

HYDERABAD, Jan 27: A monitoring team set up by the governor of Sindh visited the University of Sindh on Thursday to apprise itself of academic programmes and progress on construction projects funded by the Higher Education Commission.

Members of the team are Dr S.M. Qureshi, Major (rtd) Aftab Ahmed Lodhi and Naseeruddin Abbasi.

Sindh University Vice-Chancellor Mazharul Haq Siddiqui told the team that the university was the first public sector university which had introduced HEC reforms, including introduction of 4-year BS programme in disciplines of faculties of natural and social sciences.

He said that the university had increased enrolment of students in various programmes since 2001, by 100 per cent.

He said the university had set target in its vision 2020 and submitted it to the HEC to double the total enrolment from present 15,900 to 30,000 over next 15 years.

He said that for the purpose, the university plans to establish sub-campuses, starting from university campus in Mirpurkhas in the next two years while campuses in other towns would be established later.

Highlighting academic reforms including introduction of 4-year bachelors’ degree programme in natural and social sciences, the vice-chancellor said that syllabi in all disciplines were regularly being updated as per proposals sent by the HEC’s curriculum committees.

He said that MPhil and PhD programmes had been regulated and all PhD thesis submitted in the university since February 2005 were being evaluated by two foreign examiners in addition to internal examiners within Pakistan.

He said that 64 scholars had earned PhD degrees in various disciplines during last four years.

In order to ensure improvement in quality and expertise of the faculty, the vice-chancellor said it was envisaged to add 600 faculty with doctoral degree through human resource development programme by the year 2020 and that the number of faculty would also be increased from 460 to 1500.

He said the university had made available computers to all teaching departments along with 30 computers in central library’s Internet centres and at present there were 700 computers available along with Internet connectivity.

Dr Mohammad Yar Khuhawar, Dr M. Usman Memon, Dr Iqbal Ahmed Panhwar, Dr Sanaullah Bhutto, Dr Rafia Ahmed Sheikh, Dr Anwar Ali Shah and Dr M. Qasim Bughio highlighted academic, research and teaching plans.

The adviser, planning and development of the University of Sindh, Mr Hussain Shaikh said that a total number of 10 construction projects viz. construction of boys, girls, visiting faculty hostels, new institutes and departments at the campus were in their advanced stage of construction.

The member of the team expressed satisfaction over ongoing and future programmes about academic and research activities in the university.

They also visited the hi-tech research laboratory.