ISLAMABAD - Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) held it its 5th convocation Thursday wherein as many as 1,287 graduates received degrees of M.Sc, M.Phil and Ph.D.
The students enrolled from 2005 to 2011 were awarded degrees in faculty of natural sciences, faculty of social sciences and faculty biological sciences. A total of 887 students of M.Sc, 281 of M.Phil and 115 of Ph.Ds received their degrees in the ceremony while 135 highest scorers were awarded Chancellor’s and President’s Gold Medals at the convocation.
Majority of the gold medals awarded by the university were bagged by the girl students and four girl students secured four medals each for their excellent performances at departmental, faculty and overall university level. Chairman Senate Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari distributed the degrees and medals among graduates.
The Chairman Senate addressing the students said, “The country has no dearth of resources, but we are short in expertise for the optimum utilisation of those resources. Better management at all the tiers is a key to national development. To ensure this, we need people like you to come forward and take the lead in this respect. This is possible if you achieve human excellence and make your name in your respective fields.”
“I believe that democracy is the best system of governance for multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and pluralistic societies such as Pakistan’s, as it encourages participatory arrangements and accommodates opposing view. Both education and democracy are integral to each other as it allows people space for making informed and intelligent choices. The governments will continue to come and go but the system must stay intact for the larger good of state and society,” he maintained. Regarding the problems of the university highlighted by the Vice Chancellor in his address earlier, the Chairman Senate said: “I am well aware of the problems and challenges faced by the universities in general and QAU in particular. I assure the faculty and staff of the university that their demands will be given due consideration at the appropriate forum.”  He assured to try his level best that the employees get their Phase-2 Housing Scheme approved by the Prime Minister. It is a project which was started by former Prime Minister Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in the year 1996. Moreover, he promised to make efforts to approve from Planning Commission the Phase-I of strengthening of QAU for which an approval was given in 2007 by the Prime Minister. 
The university held the convocation after about six years still the ceremony was not impressive enough as the arrangement did not go well with the expectations and many students were seen complaining of poor arrangements by the administration. Each student was charged Rs.2000 for the convocation.  Though, out of them Rs. 700 were refundable and in fact every student paid Rs. 1300 still they were not served lunch but refreshment only that also many could not get, one of the students complained.
Many wanted to attend the ceremony with their parents but the university did not invite them that usually happen that parents are also invited to see their children getting degrees. Those who had secured their degrees with extra semesters could also not attend the degree awarding ceremony as only those who passed the exams in first attempt were allowed to attend the event.    
The event ended 40 minutes before given time and many invited guests from other organizations who are member of Syndicate did not turn up despite making commitments to attend the event, might be due to strike and protest at the campus on April 27 after which the university was closed down. 
Earlier, QAU Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Masoom Yasnzai in his welcome address said excellence has been the guiding principle of academic activities at QAU and almost 75 percent of the faculty holds doctorate degrees. Furthermore, they are actively engaged in high quality teaching and research and contribute articles to prestigious journals of international repute.
He said the university faculty and research scholars have made a significant contribution in science and technology, research and quality human resource development. Since its establishment, QAU has produced 853 PhDs, 5817 M.Phil scholars and 21435 MSc. in Natural, Social and Biological Sciences.