On the retirement of Professor Dr. Khan Gul Jadoon after completing his seven years illustrious stay, Professor Dr. Arshid Pervez has taken over the charge of campus Director CIIT Abbottabad on 12 April 2017. Professor Dr. Arshid Pervez has a unique distinction of having served on all the academic/administrative appointments of the campus since his joining i.e. 5 November 2003.
Professor Dr. Arshid Pervez, director of CIIT, Abbottabad, expressed his gratitude and thanks to the Pakistan Army for leasing out the land for the establishment of this campus.
During the interaction with the journalists, Professor Dr. Arshid Pervez emphasised on the following salient features:
* He briefed the journalists regarding the history, establishment and progress made in giant strides by COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Abbottabad since its establishment. He stated that CIIT Abbottabad campus was established in 2001, within a record time of 90 days. Dedication of the pioneers and perseverance of the entire team of subsequent faculty and staff is evident by the fact that from an initial intake of 121 students in three programmes, the campus now has a strength of 6,000 students, and is a perfect bouquet of representing the students coming from all parts of the Pakistan which include, students from Gilgit-Baltistan, Fata, Punjab, Sindh and foreign students from friendly countries like Afghanistan, Cameron and Nigeria. The phenomenal growth of students in 16 years of its short life is indicative of the vision of its Board of Governors, the Rector and the dedication of the Campus staff.
* This campus is now offering 17 undergraduate and 24 graduate/PhD study programmes in a variety of disciplines like Engineering, Computer Science, Management Sciences, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Environmental Sciences, Mathematics, and Development Studies. Fourteen of indigenous Ph.D scholars have obtained their doctorates, and 229 are registered for Ph.D in various fields like Engineering, Pharmacy, Biotechnology, Computer Science, Development Studies and Management Sciences.
* Out of a faculty strength of 570, over 200 faculty members are having Ph.D qualification mostly from abroad. In addition to this, many faculty members are pursuing Ph.D studies in foreign and local universities as a part of Faculty Development Programme of Comsats.
* The standing of an educational institute is judged by the number of research papers it publishes and the impact factor. It is my proud privilege to inform you that Abbottabad campus is one of the major contributors of research publications and faculty members are facilitated and motivated to publish in world renowned journals especially those with high impact factor and in some of the cases, research of the some of the faculty members has been translated into patents.
* Industrial Linkages have been established with industries located in Hattar, Abbottabad and Haripur.
* Talking about the University Rankings, he stated that CIIT is at number 1 in Pakistan amongst the 170 national universities and between the rank 601-800 in the world out of 980 universities for the year 2016-17
* Faculty members are also encouraged to submit research proposals to different national and international funding agencies. Currently, faculty of CIIT Abbottabad is working on about 73 research projects funded by HEC and other donors. The focus of faculty research remains on applied research like alternate energy resources, water and sanitation issues, new drugs discovery and development, software development, communication technologies, social issues and development and climate change and environmental issues with special emphasis on mountain resources.
* Currently, around 200 Ph.D and 700 MS students are registered in different disciplines of CIIT Abbottabad being the backbone of the campus research. To attract outstanding students, this campus provides generous scholarships at graduate level.
* To link research outcomes with the industries and help contribute to national growth, CIIT has established outreach services units and research centers who are regularly organizing policy dialogues, expert’s seminars and workshop on different national issues.
* Only from Abbottabad campus, more than 2,000 research articles are published, out of which around 500 are published in year 2016.
* CIIT Abbottabad pays special attention to teaching and research quality. All possible efforts are being made to constantly improve teaching and research quality. This is evident from the award of ISO 9001:2008 certification of the campus. In the ongoing endeavor for excellence in quality, our next target is ISO 14000 and ISO 18000 certification.
Corporate Social Responsibility
* Great emphasis is laid in fulfilling our social responsibility, where students and faculty of the campus remained in the forefront in times of national need, whether of natural disasters or humanitarian assistance.
* Assistance to students to obtain scholarships through various sources, awarded by ICT R&D fund, HEC need based scholarships, workers welfare board scholarships, CIIT Endowment scholarships, US AID scholarship, German and French need based scholarship, provincial governments’ scholarships, etc. In addition to this, needy students are provided financial assistance through CIIT Qarz-e-hasna schemes
* This campus is looking after 100 orphan children Under CIIT Sweet Home project, and taking care of their educational and living needs since the last three years. We will In Sha Allah continue helping these children till they graduate and become productive citizen of Pakistan.
* Another project initiated by this campus is to help government run schools in the periphery of the city of Abbottabad in establishing small computer labs in these schools. Labs are being gifted by CIIT with free services to keep these labs operational.
* As part of social responsibilities, with the sponsorship of European union, more than 500 leftover school children were trained in different traits as a part of skill development project. The traits are hospitality, smart phone repair maintenance, food safety, general electrician, hydraulics, and hoe appliance repair etc.
International Linkages
This campus has a number of active linkages with national and International Universities, these linkages involve joint research, faculty and staff development and capacity building through exchange of faculty and students for training. The important partners’ countries include Norway, and Germany in Europe, China, Malaysia, Japan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal in Asia.
Vision
* Our VISION 2020, envisages growth of the Abbottabad Campus by establishing new Departments and offering programs according to the demands of a forward looking developing nation.
* To cater for the growing number of students in the new programs, we have already acquired land in Dhamtore and the construction process has been started.
* We are already working on establishment of Centre of Excellences, and schools in medicinal plants and drug discovery, School of Business Administration, School of Engineering, Environment/climate change and applied social sciences.
* Our collaboration with the German University in studying glaciers and its impact on environment and future water replenishment for the country, will have far reaching effects. I may also inform you that CIIT is the only educational institute, undertaking this type of study.
* Provision of a conducive learning environment free from threats of security of men, material, and ideology is of one of our main goals.
In his concluding remarks, Dr. Arshid Pervez expressed his thanks to the journalists’ community for their support and positive role played in boosting the campus image in public.
