Type Public Chancellor President of Pakistan | Established 1967 (1967) | |
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Former names University of Islamabad Motto وَمَن يُؤْتَ الْحِكْمَةَ فَقَدْ أُوتِيَ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا Motto in English 'And he to whom wisdom is granted receiveth indeed a benefit overflowing' | ||
The Quaid-i-Azam University (Urdu: جامعہ قائداعظم; simply QAU) is a public research university located in Islamabad, Pakistan.
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Founded as the University of Islamabad in 1977, it was initially dedicated to the study of postgraduate education but expanded through the 1980s to an interdisciplinarity university offering both under and post graduate education. The university has, as of 2015, grown into the largest varsity in Islamabad with a total enrollment excedding 13,000 students. The university is located on a 1700 acres (or 6.9 km²) capmus on the foothills of the Margalla.
Divided into four faculties and nine affiliated research institutes, QAU is among Pakistan's largest and highest ranked public universities. Globally, it is has been consistently ranked among the top 700 varisity's in the world by the QS World University Rankings while it's regional publications ranked QAU among 120 in Asia in 2013. While the Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked it between 501-600 globally and top 120 in Asia in 2014.
The university is nationally known for its research, technological advancement, and intellectual interaction with international institutes, including the United Nations, University of Tokyo and the ICTP. It is one of the most popular universities in the country and counts several public figures and intellectuals among its current and former faculty, researchers, or alumni since its establishment. Among them include the Maleeha Lodhi, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Nasim Zehra, Shamshad Akhtar, Suhail Zubairy, Farzana Aslam, Tasneem Zehra and Salma Zahid. The university is currently led by Dr. Javed Ashraf.
History
Quaid-i-Azam University (once named University of Islamabad) was established in July 1977 under the Act of National Assembly and started teaching and research programmes for PhD and MPhil degrees. It later decided to offer Master’s, graduate, and now undergraduate programmes.
Quaid-i-Azam University has four faculties and 38 departments, institutes, schools and centers (DISCs).
Faculties and departments
Quaid-i-Azam University consists of four faculties. The following departments, institutes/schools are working under these faculties:
Rankings and reputation
For QS Top 10 Asian universities, QAU was ranked 6th in the natural science category in 2010. The university was overall ranked between 100-200 among the QS world top universities in 2007 and 2009. According to the latest 2012 ranking of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam University is ranked first in the general category. As per rankings of OIC universities, QAU stood first in ranking among Muslim countries universities. More than 80% of the professors hold doctoral degrees and have overseas experience.