LAHORE, Jan 12: The Punjab government on Saturday granted university status to the Lahore College for Women.

The announcement was made by Governor Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool (retired) in his presidential address to the 60th convocation of the Lahore College for Women. It was thus the last LCW convocation as an affiliated college of the Punjab University. The college was granted administrative and financial autonomy in 1990 and given the status of a degree awarding institution in 1999.

It is learnt that the formal ordinance regarding the university will be promulgated in a couple of days. The institution will be called the Lahore University for Women. A draft of the LUW ordinance is lying with the Law Department.

The LCW will be a constituent college of the LUW. The university and the college managements will decide at a later stage whether it should retain the intermediate classes.

The governor has given his consent to laying the foundation stone for a new postgraduate block in a couple of days. The college has, however, decided to convene a meeting of its board of governors on Jan 22 before inviting the governor to lay the foundation stone bearing the name of the university rather than the college. By then, the college management hopes, the LUW Ordinance would be promulgated.

The college has 36 kanals land available on the campus. It has prepared a working paper for the construction of a new postgraduate block and renovation of the college at an estimated cost of Rs150 million. The college has about Rs60 million at its disposal. The governor has promised that the Punjab government would provide the remaining funds.

Speaking at the convocation, the governor said the college was being granted the university status in view of its marvellous achievements. He hoped that the new university would now expand its horizon and contribute significantly to the achievement of national objectives through high quality research.

Gen Maqbool also hoped that the grant of university status to the college would go a long way towards promoting women’s social development and welfare. He said women must be enabled to become a vibrant part of decision making at national level.

The governor said that the universities should become self-supporting and act as hubs of research. He said the autonomous institutions should provide financial assistance to at least 20 per cent of their students. The government, he said, would issue categorical instructions in this regard. The governor said the government was also asking the other universities to develop curricula of international standard and introduce revolutionary measures to improve the standard of education at all tiers. He said the government was establishing Khwarzimi Institute of Computer Science in the University of Engineering and Technology to meet the information technology needs of the country.

He said the government was making arrangements to impart computer education to students studying in high schools and intermediate colleges and provide computers in all schools in the province. It also planned to spend billions of rupees to recruit better qualified teachers.

Earlier, the LCW principal, Prof Dr Bushra Mateen, presented the annual report and highlighted academic and co-curricular achievements of the college. She said the college was imparting postgraduate education in 14 subjects and considering proposals to launch five more postgraduate courses and five diploma courses.

The governor earlier inaugurated two computer institutes set up in the college.