ISLAMABAD: The 19th Convocation of Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU), Rawalpindi was held here on Monday at Jinnah Convention Center, to commemorate the outstanding academic accomplishments of its students for the years 2019-2021.
The Emeritus Professor, Dr. Samina Amin Qadir was the guest of honor at the event. Total 3398 degrees were conferred to the students including 26 PhD, 356 MS and M. Phil, 688 Masters and 2332 Bachelors’ degrees.
Over 109 gold and 87 silver medals were also awarded to the students having distinction in their respective degree programs. The sponsored gold medals and shields were also awarded by ‘First Women Bank Limited’, Bank of Punjab, ‘Media Development Trust Mishal Pakistan’, USAID, ‘Sustainable Social Development Organization’ (SSDO), ‘Dr. Saeeda Asadullah Khan Scholarship’ and ‘Qudratullah Shahab Gold Medal’.
While addressing the participants, the Vice Chancellor, FJWU Dr. Saima Hamid expressed her gratitude to the guest of honor and congratulated the students and their parents, and wished them a prosperous future who had been equipped with productive, creative and inventive professional skill sets.
She appreciated the outstanding achievements of the students and their hard work despite COVID-19 challenges.
She also highlighted the achievements of the University in the last few years especially during Covid-19 where her timely interventions ensured the swift transition towards Campus digitization and facilitated the students from remote and far-flung areas on an individual basis by providing them with academic, financial and mental health support during Pandemic. Besides this, FJWU also played a key role in hosting a Quarantine Center and later a Vaccination Center on Campus that provided vaccination to over 500, 000 people with an exceptional performance and coordination of the FJWU faculty, staff and students.
The VC also lauded the faculty efforts for securing research projects. Faculty members are winning the global and local challenge awards and international funding to enhance research culture in the campus. During the last three years, the faculty members from FJWU have published over 400 research articles in various disciplines; presented papers at 50 International and National Conferences and Seminars, conducted 60 on-campus and online workshops and more than 250 webinars and online sessions, she added.
Dr. Saima further highlighted the funded research projects with ‘The Center of Global Public Health’, University of Manitoba Canada on ‘Covid-19 Pandemic and its effects on Healthcare and Gender Issues’ and ‘Internationalization Project of Communication and Media Studies Department with the University of Malmo, Sweden for strengthening of research in the field of Media and Communications. Under Malmo University collaborative project, the faculty from Malmo University recently visited and taught in the Department of Communication and Media Studies and their second cohort would visit FJWU soon to continue collaborative teaching and research projects.
The Communication and Media Studies department also arranged an International Doctoral School, during which faculty members from United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Sweden, USA, Canada, Egypt, Turkey and Qatar contributed towards academic research projects of students in collaboration with International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Association of Media and Communication Academic Professionals (AMCAP) and Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC), the VC said and announced the start of two new Departments – the Dept. of Public Health and Dept. of Bioinformatics to meet the evolving needs of the region.
The University is already offering 67 Degree programs, under 25 Departments – including three Associate Degree Programs, 26 Undergraduates, eight MA/MSc, one MS, 18 MPhil and 11 PhD Program. In 2021, FJWU participated for the first time in the ranking of World Universities with Real Impact and ranked 8th in Top 50 Global Universities in Crisis Management and 101 in Top 200 world universities with real impact rankings 2021.
FJWU is one of the three founding Universities of All Pakistan Women University Consortium (APWUC) that can be a forerunner to synergize initiatives for Higher Education of Women in Pakistan.
Under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Saima Hamid the FJWU has taken several new initiatives to further elevate the standard of higher education. The prominent ones include FJWU’s inclusion in the prestigious Times Ranking for the University, Internationalization of Academic Departments, Focus on Students Centred Policies, Establishment of Research Centers such as ‘The Centre for Learning Excellence’ (CLE), ‘Peace and Conflict Resolution Centre’ (PCRC), ‘National Centre for Research on Suicide Prevention (CSRP)’, ‘Research and Resource Centre (RRC)’, Counselling and Wellness Center (CWC) , Up gradation of University’s physical infrastructure, Hiring of Permanent Faculty, Research projects based on community involvement, facilitation and support enhancement for the differently abled staff, faculty and students of FJWU.
Prof. Dr. Samina Amin Qadir also congratulated the students on the successful completion of their respective degrees. She also praised the VC Dr. Saima Hamid for her vision and effective policies.