KARACHI, April 28: As many as 326 graduates were conferred bachelors and masters degrees in business administration software and computer engineering programmes at the second convocation of the Bahria University, Karachi campus on Thursday. The chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Shahid Karimullah, who is also the pro-chancellor of the Bahria University handed over degrees, merit certificates and gold medals to students in the presence of senior naval officials, civil dignitaries and parents of students.

Those who were conferred degrees in person included 205 graduates of BBA and MBA exams and 121 graduates of BCS and MCS programmes. Another 69 were conferred degrees in absentia.

Speaking as chief guest, Admiral Karimullah congratulated the graduates and pointed out to them that education enhanced the ability to respond to national and global challenges and lead to sustainable growth in all fields.

“In broader sense it teaches how to produce balanced personalities, capable of meeting, without undue stress, the contingencies and variations in life”, he noted.

The admiral stressed the need of learning of leadership skills by the students to adapt to the changes being carried out at a fast pace in every sector of the present day world.

He lauded the efforts of the present government in regard to the improvement of quality of the higher education and observed that Pakistan needed to produce world class graduates who could be absorbed anywhere in the world and were not rejected simply because they had degrees from Pakistan.

On this occasion, the pro-chancellor also emphasized over the role of teachers and said that quality and performance of teachers helped build a positive image for varsities.

“The teachers must possess the required qualification, expertise, training, exposure and should have a passion for their profession they should be in touch with the latest developments in the fields of their interest”, he added.

Turning to outgoing graduates, the admiral said that they were in great position and at a stage from where they could pay back to the society which helped them achieve success. “With privilege comes responsibility”, he added, saying that graduates should give back to their community, to their school and to the world and they would be repaid many times over.

The rector of the Bahria University, Vice-Admiral (retd) Fayyazur Rehman informed the gathering about the new initiatives taken by the varsity.

He said that the university would also establish an institute of marine sciences at Gwadar, for which the navy had allocated a land piece of 50 acres, while government was expected to provide funds.

The director of the Bahria University Karachi campus, Captain (retd) Ahmed Zaheer, said that work was to commence shortly on the construction of a modern independent multi-storey library block on a plot adjacent to the existing campus.

He said that the Karachi campus conducted for the third consecutive year, examinations of candidates seeking admissions to government medical colleges and universities in the province.

Rubab Ashraf was awarded two gold medals for over all best performance in BBA and MBA examinations. Other who received gold medals are: Business Administration programme; Saima, Sarah Ahsan Qazi and Ali Jawaid.

Computer Sciences and Engineering programme; Zehra Rizvi, Anjum Mohammad Yaqub and Danish Zahur.

The recipients of silver medals were: Mohammad Zeeshan Bashir, Mahvish Qasmi, Sana Hussain Khatri and Saman Nazar.

Merit certificates were handed over to Ayesha Saleem, Himra Mursil and Samitah Maqbool.