Seventh convocation of SAU held

7th convocation of Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Tandojam was held here on Wednesday at the main auditorium. Vice-Chancellor Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam called upon the students of Agriculture University to acquire the modern day science and technology education to cope with the future challenges in the field of agriculture in a befitting manner.
"You are the builders of the country. I hope you will play a major role in overcoming the future challenges," he told the participants as chief guest at the 7th Convocation of SAU Tandojam. The Vice-Chancellor said that the country has immense resources but there was a need of the honest, committed, competent and trained manpower to take up the task of national reconstruction.
Vice Chancellor further said that the SAU mission is to establish effective linkages with the stakeholders and with the national and international organisations to translate our mission into actionable programmes. In this regard, the university has signed 9 MoUs with national and 9 MoUs with international organisations during the past four and half years.
He further said that the SAU has played active role in flood relief and rehabilitation efforts in 2010 floods and also during 2011 rain floods. Besides, SAU is member of Tallories Network of Universities meant for playing their role for the communities they serve. In order to improve and strengthen SAU interface with the stakeholders, and particularly with the farming community, two recent actions are worth sharing. On March 4-5, 2013, Sindh Agriculture University and State Bank of Pakistan jointly organised "Farmers Festival and National Conference on Agriculture and Livestock Management" at SAU under the collaborative and financial support of the State Bank of Pakistan. There were more than 2000 participants including faculty members, students, farming community, representatives of Sindh Abadgar Board and Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, public and private sector organisations directly or indirectly engaged in agriculture, NGOs, and corporate sector etc.
As a follow up on this event, a Farmers Advisory Services Center has been established to provide effective interface with the farming community for solution of their problems. I feel happy to report that SAU is expanding the scholarships portfolio to provide monetary support to needy and meritorious students under the administrative umbrella of the recently established Directorate of University Advancement and Financial Assistance (UA& FA).
Currently, the Directorate of UA&FA is managing scholarship programmes for financial assistance to students through viz. USAID merit and need based scholarships (USMNBS), Japanese need based scholarships (JNBS), AAK Endowment, Sindh Education Endowment, Dr Sadiq Foundation, and some other programmes.
Recently, HEC has taken new initiative whereby HEC-Needs Based Scholarship Programme has been initiated. For the year 2012-13, HEC has provided budget for awarding scholarships to 345 students. Put together, the number of scholarships is, however, limited and does not cover even 10 percent of the students. We are pursuing various options to enhance the number of scholarships for needy students. In this regards, a MoU has been signed with Promotion of Education in Pakistan (PEP) Foundation Inc, USA and separate endowment has been established in the name of Student Advancement Fund Endowment. With initial funding of Rs 1.00 million from PEP, SAU is taking necessary steps to raise funds with the involvement of SAU Faculty, SAU Alumni, and so to say the Friends of SAU.
It was also disclosed that, SAU has recently established Endowment Fund which has total balance of almost Rs 38 million as of May 31, 2013. Of this, SAU has reserved Rs 17.67 million from the SAU Endowment Fund in "SAU Scholarship Endowment Fund" specifically for the purpose of awarding scholarships to students.
During this convocation, over 500 graduates received B Sc, MSc degrees. This time 9 PhD degrees were also awarded. During convocation, silver medals, silver medals with gilt edge, Chancellors. Gold medals (10 gm) and chancellor gold medals (15 gm) were decorated on 42 meritorious graduates who secured positions in various faculties. Dr Jay Mal Dhanani Vice Chancellor Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Veterinary University Sakrand, Dr R B Mirbahar and Dr Ameer Bux Kalhoro were also present there.