April 08, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 1, 1429

ISLAMABAD, April 7: The International Islamic University (IIU) in its 6th convocation on Monday awarded degrees to 1,936 graduates for the academic session 2006-07.

As many as 816 of the graduates were females and 87 - 13 females - were foreigners. Gold medals were awarded to 88 students for their excellent academic performance.

Among the gold medalists, five were from the faculty of Arabic language and Islamic civilization, while seven belonged to the faculty of basic and applied sciences, eight to Islamic studies (Usuluddin); four were from the faculty of languages, literature and humanities, 15 from the faculty of management sciences, six from the Shariah and law faculty and four from the faculty of social sciences.

Sofia Malik from the faculty of Shariah and law was awarded two gold medals while the university’s first PhD degree in electronic engineering was awarded to Salman Iqbal.

Speaking on the occasion, Chairman Senate Mohammedmian Soomro, who was the chief guest, congratulated the passing-out graduates and lauded the efforts of the university for promoting quality education and providing research opportunities to the students in various disciplines.

In his welcome address, President IIU Dr Anwar Hussain Siddiqui briefed the participants about the last one year’s performance of the university, structure, development activities and its future programmes.

“A remarkable feature of the university is the maximum number of female students. Students from 42 countries are also getting education in different programmes which reflects the international character of IIU,” he observed.

The university is currently offering 80 degrees and diploma programmes from bachelor to PhD levels in addition to six diploma courses, he added.

Rector Dr Manzoor Ahmed said the university aimed at developing an international Islamic seat of higher learning, research and imparting training in various branches of knowledge with special emphasis on Islamic studies, social sciences and humanities.—APP