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Edwards College gets degree granting status
PESHAWAR, 16 November 2012 – Principal Canon Dr. Titus Presler confirmed today the reports circulating in newspapers and TV channels that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government has notified the College that it intends to make a grant of Rs. 300 million – 30 crores – to the College to assist its development toward the degree-granting status that it has been preparing for over the past year.
“This major grant will assist Edwardes with academic and physical facilities vital to the degree-awarding status that will enhance our educational contribution to the province,” Dr. Presler said. “We also celebrate the confidence that Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti, the Higher Education Regulatory Authority, and the Provincial Government as a whole have expressed in Edwards through this grant.”
The grant is equivalent to US$3.125 million at current exchange rates and is the largest monetary grant received in the history of the College. The College Management Team has been consulting with provincial government officials for about nine months, since March 2012, the Principal said. In addition to thanking the Chief Minister, the Principal expressed gratitude to Governor Syed Masood Kausar, who chairs the College Board of Governors, Higher Education Minister Qazi Muhammad Asad, Higher Education Secretary Farah Hamid, Finance Additional Secretary Nadeem Bashir, Higher Education Deputy Chief Planning Officer Muhammad Zaman Khan, Additional Higher Education Secretary Khalid Khan, and Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Syed Waqar ul Hassan.
“Both the students and the Province as a whole will benefit from the fruits of this grant from the Provincial Government, which will lead to significant quality enhancement,” said Vice Principal Kalim Ullah, who has served Edwardes for 36 years. “Edwardes is a cradle of academic learning and a community of inter-faith understanding. We try to develop the whole person and reach out to the wider community in these difficult times in the history of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”
“Edwardes College is one of our major institutions, and we are delighted that the Province is offering this boost at a turning-point in the College’s history,” said Bishop Humphrey Sarfaraz Peters, Bishop of the Diocese of Peshawar, which is the College’s sponsoring body as a private institution, and Vice Chair of the Board of Governors. The oldest institution of higher education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Edwardes was founded in 1900 by a group from the Anglican Church in the UK, and since 1956 it has operated under the auspices of the local church.
Major projects to be funded by the grant include support for faculty higher studies; enhancement of library resources; enhancement of biology, chemistry, computer, physics and statistics laboratories; and additional premises for the expanded programmes that degree-awarding status will bring. “These initiatives are crucial to our future,” the Principal emphasized.
The College is planning an event at which the Chief Minister, himself an Edwardes graduate, will officially announce the grant. The provincial grant will constitute the Edwardes College Development Fund, for which a separate account is being opened.
Edwardes College currently has about 2,950 students enrolled in nine academic programmes ranging from FSc to HND and MBA. The student body includes 230 women and about 200 students from religious minorities. The most recent faculty intake of 19 brought the faculty total to 105.
In general quality enhancement, this year the Integrity Project is reaching every Edwardes student with weekly discussions of character-building topics: Purposes of Education, Discernment of Talents, Ethical Understanding, Moral Behavior, Gender Relations, Diversity Tolerance, Social Responsibility, and Servant Leadership. The English Immersion Programme before the opening of the academic year in September exposed every entering student to 12 days of immersion in spoken English, which produced marked improvement in language skill.
Initiatives underway this year that are specific to degree-awarding status include: about 50 faculty members engaged in MPhil and PhD studies; generation of class-specific syllabi by all faculty in all disciplines, in preparation for the requirement of such syllabi in the degree-granting set-up; and transformation of the timetable to a model similar to that employed in universities.
“The mission of Edwardes College,” according to the College’s purpose statements, “is to educate and develop professionals who will be servant leaders in meeting the challenges and opportunities of Pakistan today.”
PESHAWAR, 16 November 2012 – Principal Canon Dr. Titus Presler confirmed today the reports circulating in newspapers and TV channels that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government has notified the College that it intends to make a grant of Rs. 300 million – 30 crores – to the College to assist its development toward the degree-granting status that it has been preparing for over the past year.
“This major grant will assist Edwardes with academic and physical facilities vital to the degree-awarding status that will enhance our educational contribution to the province,” Dr. Presler said. “We also celebrate the confidence that Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti, the Higher Education Regulatory Authority, and the Provincial Government as a whole have expressed in Edwards through this grant.”
The grant is equivalent to US$3.125 million at current exchange rates and is the largest monetary grant received in the history of the College. The College Management Team has been consulting with provincial government officials for about nine months, since March 2012, the Principal said. In addition to thanking the Chief Minister, the Principal expressed gratitude to Governor Syed Masood Kausar, who chairs the College Board of Governors, Higher Education Minister Qazi Muhammad Asad, Higher Education Secretary Farah Hamid, Finance Additional Secretary Nadeem Bashir, Higher Education Deputy Chief Planning Officer Muhammad Zaman Khan, Additional Higher Education Secretary Khalid Khan, and Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Syed Waqar ul Hassan.
“Both the students and the Province as a whole will benefit from the fruits of this grant from the Provincial Government, which will lead to significant quality enhancement,” said Vice Principal Kalim Ullah, who has served Edwardes for 36 years. “Edwardes is a cradle of academic learning and a community of inter-faith understanding. We try to develop the whole person and reach out to the wider community in these difficult times in the history of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”
“Edwardes College is one of our major institutions, and we are delighted that the Province is offering this boost at a turning-point in the College’s history,” said Bishop Humphrey Sarfaraz Peters, Bishop of the Diocese of Peshawar, which is the College’s sponsoring body as a private institution, and Vice Chair of the Board of Governors. The oldest institution of higher education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Edwardes was founded in 1900 by a group from the Anglican Church in the UK, and since 1956 it has operated under the auspices of the local church.
Major projects to be funded by the grant include support for faculty higher studies; enhancement of library resources; enhancement of biology, chemistry, computer, physics and statistics laboratories; and additional premises for the expanded programmes that degree-awarding status will bring. “These initiatives are crucial to our future,” the Principal emphasized.
The College is planning an event at which the Chief Minister, himself an Edwardes graduate, will officially announce the grant. The provincial grant will constitute the Edwardes College Development Fund, for which a separate account is being opened.
Edwardes College currently has about 2,950 students enrolled in nine academic programmes ranging from FSc to HND and MBA. The student body includes 230 women and about 200 students from religious minorities. The most recent faculty intake of 19 brought the faculty total to 105.
In general quality enhancement, this year the Integrity Project is reaching every Edwardes student with weekly discussions of character-building topics: Purposes of Education, Discernment of Talents, Ethical Understanding, Moral Behavior, Gender Relations, Diversity Tolerance, Social Responsibility, and Servant Leadership. The English Immersion Programme before the opening of the academic year in September exposed every entering student to 12 days of immersion in spoken English, which produced marked improvement in language skill.
Initiatives underway this year that are specific to degree-awarding status include: about 50 faculty members engaged in MPhil and PhD studies; generation of class-specific syllabi by all faculty in all disciplines, in preparation for the requirement of such syllabi in the degree-granting set-up; and transformation of the timetable to a model similar to that employed in universities.
“The mission of Edwardes College,” according to the College’s purpose statements, “is to educate and develop professionals who will be servant leaders in meeting the challenges and opportunities of Pakistan today.”
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