1,600 graduates get degrees at UCP’s 22nd Convocation

The 22nd Convocation of the University of Central Punjab was held at Expo Centre, Lahore in a graceful ceremony. Punjab Governor Ch Mohammad Sarwar graced the occasion with his presence as chief guest. Salman Akbar Raja, renowned advocate, Supreme Court of Pakistan was present as guest of honour. Among many distinguished guests from private and corporate sector, parents were also present at the occasion. 1,600 young graduates received their degrees. Fatima Tuz Zahra, received Roll of Honour and Yumna Fatima was the winner of Entrepreneurship Award, introduced this year to encourage entrepreneurship among students. Moeed Ahmad was given Certificate of Merit. 98 position holders were awarded with gold, silver and bronze medals. The governor in his address congratulated the graduates and said it was heartening to see that girls are outshining as position holders and in 10 years’ time, leadership would be in the hands of female and country will flourish by leaps and bounds. He advised students to respect their parents and teachers to be successful in life. He said it is heartening to know that Punjab Group of Colleges has decided to celebrate Year 2020 as Teachers’ Year and he extended his full support for this initiative. He said he has instructed the universities to convert to solar for a clean and Green Pakistan. He said clean water would be available throughout the country in a period of four to 5 years whereas safe and clean water to 2 crore population will be provided in the year 2020.He said Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance and teaches to give rights to minorities. Students who have graduated today must be the symbol of peace for the world to show how beautiful our religion is. He shared his struggle story with the students too. Salman Akram Raja in his address asked the students to work on hot issues like Pollution, Rich poor gap and empower women to make Pakistan develop as a better nation. Expertise in Artificial Intelligence will make them progress faster. He said that unfortunately Capitalism is the root cause of rich poor gap and we are unable to reduce this gap. Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr. Mansoor Ahmad, Pro Rector UCP said links between academia and industry is considered as a vital organ to foster research and product development and UCP has completed a number of industrial projects. Besides other several R&D activities, the University has published 271 Impact Factor Research Papers having a total impact of 546 in the last two years which signifies that the University is paying its due share in creation and enhancement of knowledge. UCP Centre of Robotics has successfully completed a number of industrial projects in collaboration with Germany, which provided economical and viable solutions by engaging indigenous resources to our agroindustry. The Centre has attracted international funding of worth 240K Euros from Germany and is actively involved in developing agricultural robots for the farmers in Pakistan. The University has established an English Language Centre, ELC, which aims to enhance students’ language and critical thinking skills. ECL also organizes workshops, seminars, and discussion forums that offer sustainable learning environment to teachers, envisioned in the betterment of the students at UCP. Last year the University provided over 10 million to its various societies for conduct of extra and co-curricular activities to inculcate leadership and management skills in its students. A consistent 8-time champion, in a row, is a unique case, which the UCP students are really proud of. UCP has a dedicated Career Services Office, CSO, at UCP that looks after industry academia linkages. This year CSO office has been revamped with a budgetary provision of 26.4 Million with the focus to help students to discover their potential and to make informed decisions about their future. In the last two months alone 317 companies of different sectors were approached out of which 100 companies have visited UCP, as a result more than 45% of the students from the graduating class are placed at renowned companies. It is our privilege to report that at present 13000+ students are studying in UCP in its 9 different faculties. This year we have established faculty of Sciences with student population of above 400. This is in compliance to the Government Instructions that Universities should pay due attention towards natural and social sciences along with market driven subjects and degrees.