Quaid-i-Azam University


Quaid-I-Azam University Islamabad, founded as University of Islamabad, is a public research university in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Founded as the University of Islamabad in 1967, it was initially dedicated to the study of postgraduate education but expanded through the 1980s to an interdisciplinary university offering undergraduate and postgraduate education. The university has, as of 2015, grown into the largest varsity in Islamabad with a total enrollment exceeding 13,000 students. The university is on a 1700 acres campus on the foothills of the Margalla.
Divided into four faculties and nine affiliated research institutes, QAU is among Pakistan's largest and highest ranked public universities. In 2020, it is ranked between 510-520 overall whilst in Physics, Mathematics and agriculture departments ranked 275th, 275th and 125th respectively worldwide, in emerging economics it's ranked below 100 which is probably a prestige, and also ranked 111th in Asia by the QS World University Rankings while its regional publications ranked QAU among 120 in Asia in 2013. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked QAU between 401-500 globally and top 75 in Asia in its 2020 lists. It has the highest Research Gate score in the country which makes it the top ranked reseach University in the country.
The university is nationally known for its research, technological advancement, and intellectual interaction with international institutes, including the United Nations, University of Tokyo and the ICTP. It is one of the most popular universities in the country and counts several public figures and intellectuals among its current and former faculty, researchers, or alumni since its establishment. They include Maleeha Lodhi, Nasim Zehra, Shamshad Akhtar, Suhail Zubairy, Farzana Aslam, Tasneem Zehra and Salma Zahid. The university is currently led by Professor Muhammad Ali.

History

The University of Islamabad was established on 22 July 1967 by the Government of Pakistan. It was renamed as Quaid-i-Azam University in honor of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan in 1976 - which was the year of his birth centenary. However, the spelling of the University's name were kept different i.e. "i" was used instead of "e" for Ezāfe that links the two words in Jinnah's title Quaid-e-Azam.
The University offered teaching and research programs for PhD and MPhil degrees in the beginning and later offered Master's programs. The University now offers undergraduate programs as well.
Quaid-i-Azam University has four different faculties and 38 departments, institutes, schools and centers.

Faculties and departments

Quaid-i-Azam University consists of four faculties. The following departments, institutes/schools work under these faculties:

Faculty of [Natural Sciences]

; Chairs
Quaid-i-Azam University was ranked 651-700 in the world by the QS World University Rankings of 2018 and 133 in Asia.
For QS Top 10 Asian universities, QAU was ranked 6th in the natural science category in 2010. The university was overall ranked between 100-200 among the QS world top universities in 2007 and 2009. According to the latest 2019 ranking of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam University is ranked first in the general category. According to Times Higher Education Latest Rankings 2020, QAU is the only Pakistani University to be ranked among the world top 500 universities. As per rankings of OIC universities, QAU stood first in ranking among Muslim countries universities. More than 80% of the professors hold doctoral degrees and have overseas experience.

Notable alumni and faculty

  1. Abdul Rashid Ghazi
  2. Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
  3. Abrar ul Haq
  4. Hamza Ali Abbasi
  5. Ahmed Hassan Dani
  6. Akbar S. Ahmed
  7. Alamgir Hashmi
  8. Ansar Pervaiz
  9. Arshad Sharif
  10. Asghar Qadir
  11. Fayyazuddin
  12. Ismat Beg
  13. Irshad Hussain
  14. Hareem Farooq
  15. Ilhan Niaz
  16. Khadija Mushtaq
  17. Maliha Lodhi
  18. Marriyum Aurangzeb
  19. Mazhar Mahmood Qurashi
  20. Muhammad Sharif
  21. Muhammad Suhail Zubairy
  22. Muhammad Imran Qadir
  23. Nasim Zehra
  24. Nargis Sethi
  25. Nisar Ali Khan
  26. Noor Muhammad
  27. Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema
  28. Pervez Hoodbhoy
  29. Qaiser Mushtaq
  30. Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry
  31. Rana Mubashir
  32. Zafarullah Khan
  33. Rasul Baksh Rais
  34. Raziuddin Siddiqui
  35. Rifaat Hussain
  36. Shamshad Akhtar
  37. Shireen Mazari
  38. Tahir Amin
  39. Tasneem M. Shah
  40. Zia Mian
  41. M. Jaffar-ur-Rehman
  42. Brigadier Anis Ahmed