MULTAN, April 14: Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool has said the government will keep the cost of higher education within the affordable limits of the common run of the people.

Addressing the eighth convocation of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) here on Saturday, the governor said that currently the tuition fee per month for a university student stood at Rs1,000 which was within parents’ means.

He said the government had provided Rs700 million alone for BZU uplift this year, while seven years ago all universities in the province used to get less than that amount.

Mr Maqbool said that he was happy that the number of PhDs had risen from 26 to 126 at the BZU and that the university was actively taking part in academic and research based activities.

The university, he said, had made tremendous progress in different fields and new disciplines like applied psychology and molecular biology were also being introduced.

The governor, who is also the BZU chancellor, conferred degrees on the passing out university students.

Earlier, the governor inaugurated the new Mass Communication department building and laid the foundation stone of Multan College of Arts (MCA) building.

Vice-chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Zafarullah said that an open-air theatre would also be built at the university.

Meanwhile, the governor also distributed Rs60 million grant among 3,000 young skilled workers under the Prime Minister’s Rozgar Scheme at the Multan Public School here.

Some 250 poor students of Vocational Training Institutes (VTI) from each of 12 districts of South Punjab, including Multan, Khanewal, DG Khan, Layyah, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Vehari, Lodhran, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Rajanpur and Bhakkar, got Rs20,000 grant each.

Addressing the passed out students, the governor said that all VTI students in the province would get this grant soon.

The governor asked the Pakistan Baitul Maal and Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC) to launch a survey to evaluate results of businesses the skilled workers would begin through government’s assistance.

Zakat and Ushr secretary Tauqir Faiq said that VTI students used to get only Rs5,000 grant to start businesses after completion of their training.

VTI institutes are being run by the PVTC and their students get stipend during education and training from the Zakat fund. — APP