UVAS to start new courses

University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Lahore vice-chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Nawaz has said that the university is producing competent human resource to bring about "white and blue revolutions" through development of livestock, dairy and fisheries sectors in the country.
"The university is initiating five new graduate and four postgraduate programmes to provide urgently needed manpower to launch the present government initiatives for white and blue revolutions in the country for food security and safety," he added.
Professor Nawaz told newsmen at a press briefing here on Wednesday that the new graduate programmes are: B.S (Hons) Applied Microbiology, B.S (Hons) Fisheries and Aquaculture, B.S (Hons) Poultry Science, B.S (Hons) Bioinformatics and B.S (Hons) Dairy Technology. While the postgraduate programmes are Masters of Business Management Administration (MBA) in Life Sciences, M.Phil and Ph.D in Wildlife and Ecosystem, M.Phil and Ph.D in Fisheries and Aquaculture and M.Phil in Dairy Technology.
The vice-chancellor said the university was already running Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) undergraduate programme and MPhil and PhD in 11 disciplines besides diploma and short certificate courses in livestock, poultry, fisheries, wildlife and related fields. 'UVAS was the leading university in the country in the field of veterinary and animal sciences and its aim was to impart education for entrepreneurship, improve animal productivity and human health with the focus on poverty alleviation of rural masses', he added.
He said that the university was also focusing on faculty development and for the purpose it had started a series of teacher orientation programmes to train its young faculty in teaching methods, research techniques and communication and IT skills.
He said that the UVAS had developed linkages with national and international institutions for the cause of quality education. He spoke about the contribution of livestock to the national economy, constraints in the development of livestock sector and measures taken by the UVAS to tackle these problems. He said that low productivity of animals, deficient feed resources, emerging and re-emerging diseases and lack of facilities for marketing and value addition were main constraints in livestock sectors.
He said that with the funding of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Punjab government, the university was undertaking 16 development projects of Rs 1235 million while it was planning Rs 1,500 million mega development project to develop hands-on-training facilities at its New Campus near Pattoki and up gradation of its existing facilities at the City Campus.