KARACHI: The Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi on Saturday awarded degrees to 2,067 graduates of the Class of 2021 and 2022 at its convocation held on the main campus.

The batch included 988 graduates from the Class of 2021 and 1,079 graduates from the Class of 2022.

The graduates include 1,496 from six undergraduate programmes, 564 from nine postgraduate programmes and seven PhD scholars from three programmes.

The convocation ceremony featured the position holders in various degree programmes. They were awarded cash prizes, medals, shields and certificates of merit.

Alumni Mahoor Shahzad (Olympian and badminton player) and Rabia Shahzad (weightlifter) were awarded with ‘Excellence in Sports’ awards, respectively.

Sindh Minister Ismail Rahoo and Dr Sulaiman Shahbuddin of the Aga Khan University were the chief guest and guest of honour, respectively.

IBA Executive Director Dr S Akbar Zaidi congratulated the graduating students.

He said: “It makes me immensely happy to share that almost 40 per cent of our graduates are young women and this number is steadily growing, which leads me to give a special mention to our first female PhD scholar in Mathematics, Dr Nazish Kanwal. IBA is honoured to nurture such skilled individuals and we take pride in empowering our women in every field.”

He also highlighted the transformation of the IBA from a business school to a multi-disciplinary institution.

He added that the IBA had established three autonomous schools with independent deans.

Dr Shahabuddin urged the graduates to maintain their spirit and to thoughtfully address the many challenges of the current times.

Minister Rahoo commended the IBA for being a leading institute of excellence and said, “There is a long list of notable IBA alumni who are transforming the world with their progressive leadership; around 120+ of them are CEOs, serving in leading roles around the globe.”

He also appreciated IBA’s mandate of ensuring diversity and inclusivity by taking students from all socioeconomic backgrounds with the help of IBA’s financial aid programmes.

Currently 35pcof the IBA students receive some form of financial aid.

He urged the graduates to achieve remarkable goals in life and to make the institution proud.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2022