Aqeel Jamil JEDDAH — AMU Alumni Jeddah Committee hosted a reception in honor of AMU Pro Vice Chancellor Brig. Ahmed Ali, who is visiting the Kingdom to perform Umrah. While addressing the gathering, Ali highlighted elaborate steps taken to improve overall development of AMU and achievements made so far. He appealed to each Alig in the Kingdom to find employment for at least one young Alig. Their slogan should be “Each One Bring One”, he added. Ali said when the present management took charge of AMU, they emphasized two objectives - discipline and job creation. The university administration with the cooperation of students and staff was able to implement discipline. “The results were so impressive that not even one day's classes were suspended over the last three years,” he said. The administration is closely coordinating with the unions of students, staff and non- teaching staff unions to tackle issues concerning them and take prompt decisions. “Even army officers living in metropolitan cities like Delhi are keen to admit their daughters in AMU as they find it to be more secure here. Besides AMU is one of the most affordable universities in India,” Ali said. Two new faculties — Faculty of International Studies and Faculty of Environmental Studies — and an institute of pharmacology are to start soon. The Faculty of International Studies will start in July 2015. The present hostel capacity at AMU is 33,500 students, but as it is not enough, a new girls' hostel with a capacity of 1,500 will be ready by next year. An international hostel equipped with modern amenities is soon to open. AMU is the first University in Uttar Pradesh to have an astro turf hockey ground and soon two new swimming pools will be constructed. One is of an international standard sponsored by Dubai-based businessmen M.A. Yousuf Ali for boys and another for girls sponsored by the government. Sports quota has been reduced and only state level players will be accepted. “Invited category” has also been introduced to tap the prominent national sports talent. A total of 79 classrooms on the campus are being converted to smart classrooms, upgrading teaching techniques. Many of them are donated by alumni abroad, he explained. He revealed that AMU has signed 24 MOUs for student exchange with top class universities around the world, including Ohio and Tehran universities. Under this scheme six AMU students are currently studying at Ohio University, US. Ali said reputable companies have been invited to AMU for campus recruitment, and MNCs like Google, Microsoft, TCS and Infosys have visited AMU recently. For the first time, 45 female IT graduates were hired by TCS last year. He said although the university is 100 years old it had a very nominal corpus fund. Now a new corpus fund of 60 crore rupees has been generated using small funds lying unutilized in the university resources. Grants for the university has been reduced from 175 crore to 168 crore rupees. “The thinking has been changed, now all functions are being conducted on time , teachers and students are coming on time and the environment and ambience of the university is very nice. The campus has been given a facelift and its looking great,” he claimed. On a concluding note, Ali announced to a thundering applause that NAAC has accredited AMU with an A grade. “Among a total of 130 universities inspected last year AMU was on top, that too in its first attempt. AMU has also ranked 3rd in the ranking of Asian universities by Times of London. Now AMU Vice Chancellor Lt. Gen. Zameeruddin Shah has a dream to make AMU the No. 1 university in India by 2017. Answering questions from the audience, Ali informed that teacher training is provided at the Academic Staff College and that grants for attending conference has also been increased. Faculty members from top international universities have been invited. The university will consider research applications from NRIs working as faculty members here. For NRI students' admission in AMU, Ali said the university is trying to increase seats for NRI students. The admission wing has been advised to waive the last date for NRI students' admission, especially for research students. The university will consider conducting competitive exams abroad if the applicants' number is sizable enough. Conducting these competitions online is also being considered. Uploading the lecture material for classes and research journals online was also suggested by Aligs. Farzan Rizvi, president AMUAJ, welcomed the chief guest , guests and Aligs. He emphasized the importance of cooperation among the Alumni associations in the Kingdom and abroad to help the cause of Aligarh. Dr. Mohamed Badshah , Engr. Iqbal Ahmed and Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi, an alumnus of AMU, also spoke on the occasion. Aqeel Jamil hosted the function and introduced AMUAJ's new programs of “Each One Teach One” and “Each One Employ One”. The vote of thanks was presented by Azizurrub. Khan Nooruddin and Mumshaduddin presented the mementos. Wazeer Akhter, Mansoor Jafry, Imran Ahmed Ansari, Abdul Baseer, Rabnawaz Khan and Farzan Rizvi presented the bouquets to the guests. Engr. Ahmed Alghamdi, Hasan Ghias, Najeeb Hashmi, Kamal Ahmed, Athar Rasool were among the huge no of Aligs who attended the function. — SG
