The 11th Convocation of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore was held here on Thursday
LAHORE (Pakistan Point News - 12th Dec, 2019) The 11th Convocation of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore was held here on Thursday. Chancellor/Governor Punjab Ch Muhammad Sarwarpresided over the convocation while Minister for Livestock & Dairy Development Department Punjab SardarHasnainBahadurDareshak, Adviser to CM Punjab on Livestock Faisal Hayat Jabwana, Secretary Livestock Punjab BarristerNabeel Ahmad Awan, Vice-Chancellor University of Education Lahore (UE) Meritorious Prof DrTalatNaseer Pashaand a large number of students, faculty members, industrialists from dairy & poultry and pharma industries and stakeholderswere present.
Total 1,470graduates were conferred degrees and 78 position-holders awarded medals. Out of the graduating students, 222were DVMs, 355BS (Hons), 91Pharm-D, 27 Doctors of Nutrition and Dietetics (DND), 42MBAs,24 MBAs (Executive), 11MBF,35BBA (Hons), 233MSc, 393MPhil and 37 PhDs.
Addressing the convocation, the Chancellor/Governor Punjab Ch MuhammadSarwarcongratulated the graduating students on getting degrees and medals and urged them to work hard, respect their parents and teachers for success in practical life, serve humanityand play their due role in nation building. He lauded the progress achieved by the UVAS and won its place among top universities of Asia. He said that education is the top priority of the government and vice-chancellors of all universities are being appointed on merit.
The Chancellor said the government is committed to facilitating universities in enhancement of abilities to achieve the highest goal of knowledge and to maintain good governance at institutional level by upholding merit.
The Governor said food security, healthy environment and livestock production are the areas of priority for our country. He urged the UVAS scientists to expedite their efforts to cope with the challenge of food insecurity and malnutrition. He said that academic research could move the country towards prosperity. He said Pakistan has great potential in livestock sector and we should try to increase the livestock production to feed our ever-increasing population.
Earlier, the Chancellor along with the Vice-Chancellor gave away degrees to PhD scholars and medals to the position-winning graduates.
Presenting the welcome address, Vice-Chancellor Prof DrMasoodRabbanispoke about the academics, research, development, extension programmes, recent initiatives and community services of the university. He said that with a history of 137years of excellence, the UVASis now among top Asian universitiesas per The Higher Education and QS World Universities Rankings. As per Higher Education Commission Sports Ranking 2018, UVAS got 3th position among public sector universities of Pakistan and 5th among all public and private universities of the country, the Vice-Chancellor said, adding that the UVAS is also among top 10 universities of Pakistan according to HEC overall ranking of Pakistani Higher Education Institutions.
Prof Rabbani said that UVAS is swiftly achieving the milestones of need-based multi-level education and establishing itself astalent development institution by using its knowledge, resources and skills for growth of human resources.
The Vice-Chancellor informed the audience that UVAS scientists are executing 144 research projects worth of Rs 1.7billion, including 15 funded by foreign agencies worth Rs 905 million. This year, the total number of research articles of UVAS faculty members in journals with impact factor exceeded to 616. The university supported 105 faculty and scientists to visit abroad to present their research and participate in short trainings.
He said that the university is executing fourdevelopmentprojectsworth Rs6.4 billion. He said that the UVAS is uniquely structured to provide wide-ranging services to the community including farmers, publicand private stakeholders and the industry. The noteworthy services are diagnostics facilities, vaccine production, 24/7 clinical and extension services, consultancy and advisory services and policy framework, he said.
He said that the UVAS encourages its students by providing them incentives including merit and need based scholarships. UVAS awarded 1,087 scholarships of Rs 56.4 million during last year, he added. He said the university gives a lot of emphasis on the development of physical and mental faculties of its students to make them responsible and productive citizens.To achieve this sports and extra-curricular activities are encouraged. UVAS made maximum participation in different Championships at National and International levels and showed marvelous performance by winning 65 Medals.
The Center for Applied Policy Research in Livestock organized different consultative meetings and advocacy in policy meetings for poultry, meat and dairy sector that is also practically influencing national economic policies. Given these facts, the UVAS is assuming a new role as an effective think tank, the Vice-Chancellor concluded.
