'UVAS making efforts to provide quality education'

The universities can play a vital role by conducting research and focusing on indigenous resources towards overcoming the challenges being faced by the people in Pakistan. This was resolved by a focused group meeting on "Knowledge Exchange strategic development in Pakistan and role of academia" held at University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Ravi Campus Pattoki on Wednesday.
The meeting was conducted by British Council with the collaboration of UVAS fisheries department. The delegation was led by Regional Higher Education Project Manager central and South Asia Ben Isaac. The other members of the delegation were British Council consultant Jo Chaffer, British Council Manager Higher Education partnerships Sarah Pervez, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority Assistant Manager policy and planning Hameed Ullah Khan, foot wear expert Javed Akhtar Mir, Project co-ordinator Inspire Professor Dr Muhammad Sharif Mughal.
Earlier, UVAS Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Nawaz briefed the delegation about the chronicle of veterinary school that had now become a country's prestigious university. He said this institution was imparting quality veterinary education in Lahore for the last 129 years. He said the UVAS was playing its effective role in the leather, poultry, meat and dairy technology. He said that university had won research grants worth Rs 571.794 million through competition. While, he said, university's development budget was Rs 430 millions adding that within a short span the indigenous resources were being increased 10 to 25 percent.
Professor Nawaz said the university had developed research collaboration and signed 21 MoUs with many international institutions to upgrade the standard of education. He said the varsity was making untiring efforts to provide quality education. The delegation appreciated the UVAS poverty alleviation model and discussed about the challenges.
The total share of livestock sector in GDP, Vice Chancellor Professor Nawaz said the vibrant role of livestock sector was contributing approximately 55.1 percent of the agriculture value-added and 11.4 percent to national GDP. Despite a plethora of challenges, he said, the livestock industry was surprisingly growing by 4.1 percent and cattle population had grown up to 67 million in 2010-11.
Vice-Chancellor Dr Nawaz said that it was the only university in Pakistan, which was conducting online examination to maintain the process of transparency at all. The participants urged the academia to produce innovative mindset, which would develop the making money techniques to improve the national economy. But they categorically agreed the human resource should be equipped with basic product knowledge and know about the management skills. They also visited the livestock farms, dogs training and breeding center and milk processing unit.