Thread by @nabeelaq

Universities play a vital role in developing a nation. It's in environments like these that the future is nurtured. Extra attention needs to be given to the infrastructure, faculty & research.
With over 185 Universities across 4 provinces, here's what they're doing for us.

2. The oldest institute in Pakistan is @gculahore. Established in 1864, it obtained a full University status in 2002.
Notable alumni include Allama Iqbal & Dr. Abdus Salam whose genius changed the world as we know it.
The legacy of this institute has had a lasting impact.

3. But, how do we make this impact sustainable & long-lasting?
The learning has to compound & be taught as values to the young minds that are walking the same halls as those who came before them.
علمی درسگاہ خواہ کالج ہو یا یونیورسٹی, تعلیم و تربیت دونوں ہی لازم و ملزوم ہیں.

4. The list is long when it comes to @gculahore; Ismat Beg, Ashfaq Ahmed, Patras Bokhari, M. Zafarullah Khan, General Raheel Sharif, Dr. Har Gobind Khorana & many more names that have made their mark.
Our journey has only begun when it comes to institutional legacies.

5. Starting from my own alma mater, @FastNU_Official was founded in the vision of Agha Hasan Abedi, who was the patron & gave the initial Rs.100M. The focus was to promote research in Computer Sciences & emerging technologies to enable other growing sectors of Pakistan.

6. @pu_lhr_official is our oldest university. Anyone who has seen it knows that it's an entire city.
Such campuses have a rich history & its alumni can be seen overlapping with the graduates of @gculahore.
Choudhry Rahmat Ali, who coined the name 'Pakistan' is also an alumni.

7. @UET_official (1921) is the oldest engineering institute of Pakistan. The Lahore campus has 7 faculties & 23 Research Centers. Its focus is on research, innovation & industry relations. In the past, it has conducted research funded by @HuaweiMobile, Cavium Networks, @Microsoft

8. A university I saw being formed first-hand was @ITUPunjab, founded in 2012 with Dr. @umarsaif as the VC. It was modelled after @MIT to advance scholarship & innovation in the areas of science, technology & engineering & presence of an entrepreneurial culture in teaching & RnD.

9. Founded in 1860, @KEMULahore is named after Edward VII & is the 4th oldest medical school in South Asia.
Mayo Hospital became an affiliate hospital in 1871 & Lady Aitchison Hospital became the second teaching hospital in 1887. This institute has a rich history.

10. KEMU became an independent degree-awarding institute in 2005.
Notable alumni include Dr. Israr Ahmed, renowned religious scholar, @DrAmjadSaqib (Sitara-e-Imtiaz & founder of @Akhuwat), & Dr. @fslsltn, SAPM on Health & former CEO @SKMCH.

11. @FCCollege is an independent research liberal arts university founded in 1864 by American missionary Dr. Charles William Forman.
Forman Christian College served as an associated college of the University of Calcutta until 1947 when it became affiliated with @pu_lhr_official.

12. Notable alumni of FCC include Sir Abdul Rasheed - first Chief Justice of Pakistan, Sir Mohammed Pervaiz Anwer - Co-founder & Chairman @UBLDigital, @JahangirKTareen - politician & businessman, & @SMQureshiPTI - Foreign Minister of Pakistan along with many others.

13. In 1941 a medical college named after a son of Sir Ganga Ram was set up (Balak Ram Medical College). After independence, the college was closed & abandoned. However, Prof. Dr. Shujaat Ali & his colleagues wanted to revive the institution to teach female doctors.

14. With this dream, they asked M. Ali Jinnah for the institution to be named after his sister.
In Oct. 1948, Fatima Jinnah Medical College admitted its first batch of 39 students & was inaugurated in March 1949 by Khawaja Nazim-ud-Din, the PM of Pakistan. @fjmu_offical

15. @LifeAtLUMS was granted a charter in 1985 after Syed Babar Ali (founding Pro-Chancellor) & @razak_dawood recognized a shortage of good managers in the country.
It's the only business school in Pakistan to have AACSB accreditation & ranked in the top 250 by QS in 2020.

16. @BNULahore is the 1st liberal arts university in Pakistan with dedicated faculty focused on producing quality graduates. It's part of the Beaconhouse Group founded by Mrs. Nasreen Kasuri. It's one of the world's largest private school networks with 180,000+ students globally.

17. @QAU_Official (originally founded as the University of Islamabad in 1967) was dedicated to post-graduate education but later moved to undergraduate studies in the 1980s.
Spread across 1700 acres on the foothills of Margalla, the University holds over 13,000 students.

18. @QAU_Official was ranked in Asia Top 75 by @timeshighered in 2020. It is known for its intellectual interaction with the @UN, @UTokyo_News_en & ICTP.
Alumni include @LodhiMaleeha - 1st woman to represent 🇵🇰 at the @UN, & @1sakhtar - 1st female Governor of @StateBank_Pak.

19. @AiouOfficial is the world's 4th largest institute of higher learning, with an annual enrollment of 1,121,038 students (2010), the majority being women. The university has 44 regional campuses.
AIOU paved the way for people who can't afford private university education.

20. At @AiouOfficial, online learning is mostly offered free or at a minimal cost. Established in 1974, it's Asia's first open university with an emphasis on distance education in philosophy, natural science & social sciences. It has the most applicants per year in Pakistan.

21. @Official_NUST is a public research university, set up under the administration of the Armed Forces in 1991.
@TopUnis ranks it among the leading 50 universities under the age of 50, among the top 400 in the world, & No.1 university in Pakistan 2021.

22. During #COVID, @Official_NUST developed a diagnostic kit 'N-CovKit', COVID Check Pakistan - a bilingual screening app, teleoperated decontamination robot, aerial spraying drone, high-quality sanitisers for microbial control, & ventilator systems for short-term stabilisation.

23. @NTU_OFFICIAL is a premier institution of textile education in Pakistan & a good example of how an industry established an institute. The idea was conceived by a group of industrialists in 1954 & @GOPunjabPK facilitated them by providing 62 acres of state-owned land for free.

24. Kohinoor Industries, Colony Textile Mills, Dawood Foundation & Lyallpur Cotton Mills provided funds (Rs. 2.5M), which were used for the construction & other infrastructure. The @GOVUK provided the bulk of equipment and machinery, along with experts. @NTU_OFFICIAL

25. NED University (1921), is another old institute in Pakistan. It was named after its benefactor Nadirshaw Eduljee Dinshaw. Originally named as Prince of Wales Engineering College, it was training civil engineers working in building the Sukkur Barrage.

26. @Dow_Uni (1945) was founded by Sir Hugh Dow, Governor of Sindh. It's known for its strong emphasis on biomedical, health & medical research programmes.

University of Karachi (1951) has over 53 depts., 19 research institutes & 9 faculties. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan is an alumnus.

27. @ibakarachi was established as a business school in 1955 by the govt. with technical support from @Wharton & @USC. It's one of the two Pakistani business schools to be certified by the South Asian Quality System.
Alumni include former Federal Minister for Finance @Asad_Umar.

28. @AKUGlobal is a leading institution with programmes & campuses in Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, UK & Afghanistan.
2M+ patients/year are treated at 7 AKU hospitals & 350+ medical centres in East Africa & Pakistan. It was ranked in the top 100 for clinical medicine.

29. @AKUGlobal Hospital was the 1st private hospital in Pakistan to develop a #COVID test & has been performing testing since Feb 11 & treated Pakistan's 1st case on Feb 26, 2020.
AKU is known to have an economic impact in Pakistan of USD 1B, supporting 42K jobs annually.

30. Moving to @KPKUpdates, Islamia College University Peshawar was founded in the vision of Sir S.A. Qayyum & Sir George Roos-Keppel in 1913 after they noticed a lack of educational opportunities in the province. Its historical roots trace back to the Aligarh Movement.

31. @upeshpakistan (1950) was a constituent college to the Islamia College. In its first year, 129 students enrolled (with only 1 female). Jinnah adopted the college as one of the heirs to his fortune.
Ghulam Ishaq Khan is an alumnus who was our 7th President & established GIKI.

32. Ghulam Ishaq Khan University is spread over 400 acres in Swabi. Founded in 1993, it was shaped by Pakistan's most influential scientists Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan (founding member), Dr. Asghar Qadir & Dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan into one of the finest science & engineering colleges.

33. Establishment of the Women University Mardan & Women University Swabi in 2016 are momentous steps taken for women's education in KPK.
Similarly, University of Baltistan (2017) has a goal of improving access to higher education for the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.

34. University of Balochistan (1970) has produced notable women leaders like Rahila Hameed - 1st female Speaker Provincial Assembly of Balochistan, Zobaida Jalal - Minister for Defence Production, Syeda Tahira Safdar - 1st female Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court.

35. The University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (1980) is the biggest educational institution in AJK. Its Institute of Geology is one of the oldest departments & one of the finest in Pakistan.
The lack of educational infrastructure in Kashmir has to be fixed to empower its people.

36. Institutes like @Namaledu (with PM @ImranKhanPTI as the Chairman of the Board) & @Akhuwat University - Pakistan's 1st 'fee-free university' established by @DrAmjadSaqib, are efforts that focus on providing free quality education for all.

37. The efforts put in by Pakistani entrepreneurs, businessmen & educationists in setting up institutions like @my_superior (Ch. Abdul Rehman), @UMTOfficial (Dr. Hasan Sohaib Murad), @UCPofficial (Mian Amir Mahmood) & @ULahore (Awais Raoof) are playing an important role in Punjab

38. Universities shape the landscape of a country & strengthen its foundations. Having visited 80+ universities across Pakistan, an industry-academia divide is evident, which hampers the efforts to commercialize research at a national level.

39. Where the work being done by our institutes is commendable, our faculty, industry leaders & entrepreneurs need to take a keener interest in education.
The industry needs to build demand for research in our institutes to cultivate a culture of innovation.

#Pakistan Zindabad!