Aga Khan announces next 30 years vision for AKU

The Aga Khan University, country's top medical university held its Convocation 2013 in Karachi today. During the ceremony, the university awarded graduate and undergraduate degrees and diplomas to its students. The chief guests of the event were Ishrat ul Ibad, Governor Sindh and Qaim Ali Shah, the chief minister of Sindh. The University's Chancellor His Highness Aga Khan arrived to the city after his first legged in Islamabad where he met President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Shariff.

During the ceremony, the Aga Khan IV announces vision for the Aga Khan University for the next 30 years. He said that AKU will add a new campus for the university's new Faculty of Arts and Sciences where several graduate professional schools will be established for Media and Communications, Tourism and Leisure, Policy Making and Management etc.

"Our new School of Media and Communications is already building capacity in Nairobi to help lift the quality of media industries in the developing world, engaging with new technologies and with appropriately educated proprietors, managers, and practitioners.

The School of Leadership and Management will develop the capacity of its students to guide business organisations, but also social enterprises and civil society institutions amid the complex challenges that face developing countries.

The Leisure and Tourism programme, meanwhile, will focus on the broad tourism value- chain, from public policy to infrastructure to cultural assets, while helping to fill an important research gap in this critical field.
The School of Architecture and Human Settlements, on the other hand, will build enhanced design professionalism, emphasising functionality and cultural sensitivity, in urban and rural environments, recognising the profound impact of the built environment on the quality of life.

The School of Government, Public Policy and Civil Society will prepare and empower professionals to formulate and implement public policies in developing societies, while our new School of Law will focus on subjects such as constitutional devolution, international law, dispute resolution, intellectual and real property, and the management of capital markets.

Finally, a programme in Economic Growth and Development will respond to the particular needs of developing economies, including fields such as agriculture and horticulture, tourism and leisure, the extractive industries, and digital arts and services.

We intend that each of these schools should work closely with our existing faculties, in nursing, medicine and education, while coordinating effectively with our new Faculties of Arts and Sciences, and indeed with one another, sharing perspectives and inter-disciplinary opportunities.

Meanwhile, we also expect to continue our geographic expansion and to build new partnerships with universities in the West, in the East and the Global South. This is an outline then of what AKU may look like thirty years from now" added His Highness Aga Khan.
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It is worth mentioning that AKU was granted its charter as Pakistan’s first private international university 30 years ago. This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the first graduating class of the School of Nursing, the 25th anniversary of the first graduating class of the Medical College, the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Institute for Educational Development; and the 10th anniversary of the University’s Examination Board.