SARGODHA: The University of Sargodha (UoS) is celebrating its inclusion into the top 500 universities of Asia in the latest QS Asia University Rankings.

In the QS Asia University Rankings 2019 released last month, the UoS stood in 401-450 category of Asian universities.

“We have proactively pursued progress in four spheres - quality teaching, productive research, knowledge sharing and global outlook - which is increasing our academic profile both nationally and globally,” Vice Chancellor Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad said in a press release issued on Thursday, crediting the university faculty and staff for the latest achievement.

The reforms process underway in the university since the start of 2017 has helped the university achieve many key indicators of QS University Rankings such as the number of teachers, including PhD scholars, their research publications, and the extent of international academic collaborations.

The UoS has increased teachers from 545 in 2016 to over 700 at present, and of them PhD scholars rose from 223 to 280.

This happened because key statutory bodies like the Syndicate and Selection Board met each for seven times to recruit and promote qualified faculty, and resolve other issues says press release issued by the UoS here today, says the press release.

Similarly, the most of the 710 research publications are in impact factor journals. In 2018, this figure is expected to be even higher as clear from the data till June 2018 submitted for determining 2019 QS rankings.

The VC said this is due to revamping of the Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization, including offering financial incentives to productive faculty members, creating inter-disciplinary research groups, and updating foreign referees lists by including scholars from top 300 universities of the world.

The digitization of the UoS is also making a huge difference. The introduction of online admissions, for example, increase applications from 44,000 for fall 2017 session to 52,000 for fall 2018.

The university is also installing a University Management System to ensure efficient management and better service delivery.

“Other major reforms to ensure quality education and promote university outlook include consolidating academic programs, including the merger of overlapping faculties and departments, and closure of unnecessary degree programs, increasing the frequency of national and international conferences and workshops, and initiating academic research collaborations with major international institutions, including leading Chinese universities in the field of agriculture,” said the VC.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2018