MANSEHRA: The Hazara University on Wednesday conferred degrees on 471 graduates in its 10th convocation on main campus on Wednesday.

Eleven students both men and women got PhD degrees, while 179 students received gold medals in different disciplines. HU Vice-Chancellor Dr Mohammad Idrees gave away 467 degrees to male and female graduates.

Parents and teachers of the students attended the event in large numbers.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Shah Farman, who is the chancellor of the university, was to attend the convocation as the chief guest but he didn’t show up due to other important engagements. The VC said the university was the second largest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with over 13,000 students enrolled in 38 departments.

He said teaching and research activities were being conducted in arts, science, health sciences, law and management sciences faculties.

“Our university is focusing its attention on the promotion of innovation and modern research,” he said.

Dr Idrees said the university had over 370 highly-qualified and experienced faculty members, who were imparting quality education to students.

“Half of our faculty members hold PhD degrees, many foreign ones,” he said.

The VC said more than 13,000 students included foreigners, too, including Saudis, Maldivians and Afghans.

“We are proud to produce over 100 PhD and 2,500 MPhil scholars in few years,” he said.

Dr Idrees said many of faculty members got research projects worth million of rupees from national and international agencies, including Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Science & Technology, Pakistan Science Foundation, Directorate of Science & Technology, NFCH, British Council and US State Department.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2018