LAHORE (23-11-23): The 14th Convocation of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore was held here on Thursday. Chancellor/Governor Punjab Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman presided over the convocation while Chairman Punjab Higher Education Commission Prof Dr Shahid Munir, Chinese Consul General Lahore Mr Zhao Shiren, UVAS Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad, faculty members, syndicate members, representatives from dairy, poultry, meat, food and pharmaceutical industries were present.
Total 1,761 graduates were conferred degrees and 63 position-holders awarded medals. Out of the graduating students, 60 were PhDs, 623 MPhils, 222 DVMs, 706 BS (Hons), 82 Pharm-D, 01 Doctors of Nutrition and Dietetics, 08 MBA (Executive) and 59 BBA (Hons).
Addressing the convocation, Governor Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman congratulated the graduating students and urged them to work hard and serve humanity. He lauded the progress achieved by the UVAS under the leadership of Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad in the world’s universities ranking, national sports ranking. He said that he was happy to learn that UVAS also obtained drug manufacturing license and its registration from DRAP for Foot & Mouth vaccine production, which will uplift livestock sector in the country. He said that Livestock sector has the potential and UVAS is playing a key role in ensuring food security and poverty reduction. He advised students to thank their parents and teachers for their untiring efforts for their education. He said that the main objective of universities is to conduct research and Pakistani universities are producing best researchers. He advised students to be positive, shun negate thinking in society, do research, dig reality and never disseminate any hearsay. Lauding female students, the governor said it was encouraging to see that majority of position-winning students were girls, who are proving their mettle in diverse fields, including livestock. He also condemned the terrorism and war crimes being committed by Israel in Palestine and expressed sympathy with the innocent people of Palestine.
Earlier, the Chancellor along with the UVAS Vice-Chancellor gave away degrees to PhD scholars and medals to the position-winning graduates.
Presenting the welcome address, Vice-Chancellor Prof Nasim Ahmad spoke about the academic, research, development, extension programmes, various initiatives and community services of the university. He said that UVAS stood among top 801-1000 best universities of the world and 3rd in Punjab public sector in the Time Higher Education World University Rankings. UVAS got 7th position among public sector universities of Pakistan in the Higher Education Commission National Sports Ranking. He said we encourage our students by providing them incentives including merit and need based scholarships. UVAS awarded 1,359 scholarships during the fiscal year and total amount awarded in these scholarships was over Rs.103 million and every sixth student is the beneficiary he added.
Prof Nasim said that UVAS is a research intensive university and is currently executing 79 research projects worth over Rs 1,027 million. He said two faculty members of UVAS have been awarded with national patents while UVAS filed 10 more for approval. He mentioned UVAS is executing ongoing development projects of about Rs 6 billion sponsored by the HEC and the Punjab Government. He mentioned recently completed three development projects worth Rs 380 million and UVAS has also initiated two projects worth Rs 228 million from its own resources which includes swimming pool and academic building of Pharmacy. He said this year at the KBCMA CVAS Narowal the university completed a state-of-the-art academic block having modern classrooms, labs and a library and initiated new academic programs of applied microbiology and medical laboratory technology at Narowal campus. He thanked Punjab government for sanctioning Rs 100 million as one-time special grant-in aid-cum-tied grant and HEC for sanctioning Rs 30 million for UVAS solarization project. He said most outstanding achievement of UVAS has been that for the first time in public sector university it obtained drug manufacturing license and its registration from DRAP for Foot & Mouth vaccine production. He said that in post 2022 floods UVAS actively participated in the economic revival of flood affected families and distributed pregnant cattle, sheep and goats among the most deserving families in Layyah, DG Khan, Fazilpur, Taunsa, Rojhan and Khairpur (Sindh). He urged students to focus on entrepreneurship and become job providers rather than job seekers. Prof Dr Nasim Ahmed said UVAS is providing wide-ranging services to the community including farmers, public and private stakeholders and industry and the notable services are diagnostics facilities, vaccine R&D production, 24/7 clinical & extension services, consultancy and advisory services and policy framework.
