LAHORE (18-12-25): The 16th Convocation of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore was held here on Thursday. Minister for Law Punjab Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan presided over the convocation while Member Provincial Assembly Ms Shagufta Faisal, Secretary Livestock and Dairy Development Department Punjab Mr Ahmad Aziz Tarar, UVAS Vice-Chancellor Meritorious Prof Dr Muhammad Younus (DLA.I, T.I), faculty members, syndicate members, representatives from dairy, poultry, meat, food and pharmaceutical industries were present.
Total 1,750 graduates were conferred degrees and 63 position-holders awarded medals. Out of the graduating students, 55 were PhDs, 436 MPhils, 357 DVMs, 734 BS (Hons), 102 Pharm-D and 66 BBA (Hons).
Addressing the convocation, Provincial Law Minister Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan congratulated the graduating students, their parents and teachers and urged them to work hard and serve the country. He also congratulated positions holder students and said hard work is the key to success. He said Pakistan is an agriculture country and Allah Almighty has blessed Pakistan with unparalleled high-quality Nili Ravi buffalo and Sahiwal cows.
He said that successful candidates are the pride of their parents and institution and asset to the country especially their parents sacrificed greatly to educate their children and secure a brighter future for them. He said UVAS is making remarkable progress under the leadership of Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Younus and lauded his performances and achievements.
Mr Ahmad Aziz Tarar congratulated the students who successfully completed their degrees. He said hard work made you successful in life.
Earlier, the Law Minister along with the UVAS Vice-Chancellor gave away degrees to PhD scholars and medals to the position-winning graduates.
Presenting the welcome address, Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Younus said that UVAS is among the top 601-800 best universities of the world and 301-350 in Asia in the Times Higher Education Rankings. He said that in THE Interdisciplinary Science Rankings 2026, UVAS has the distinction to achieve the first position among all public universities of Punjab province, fourth among all the public and private universities across Pakistan and 155th globally. He also said UVAS is also well placed at 51-100 in the QS World University Rankings by Subject (Veterinary Science) not only in academics but UVAS is also among the top 10 universities in the Higher Education Commission Sports Ranking. He mentioned that UVAS is offering 79 degree programs, including 19 Undergraduate, 34 M.Phil and 26 PhD programs and in these programs, about 11,000 students from all over country and abroad are enrolled. He said we encourage our students by providing them incentives including merit and need based scholarships and UVAS awarded 1,946 scholarships during the fiscal year and total amount awarded in these scholarships was over Rs. 129.15 million and maximum students are the beneficiary he added.
Prof Younus said that UVAS is a research oriented university and is currently executing 52 research projects worth over Rs 411. 367 million. UVAS faculty members have published more than 600 research articles with impact factor of over 750 during the last one year. He said development of FMD and lumpy skin vaccines, alternatives to antibiotics in poultry, control of rabies, ELISA kit to detect post-vaccination immune response, livestock reproduction through IVF technology, aquaculture production enhancement through disease control, sustainable production of processed fish meat, value-added fish byproducts and control of tick borne diseases to address food insecurity are few of the UVAS key research projects.
He said that UVAS is executing development projects of more than Rs 3.589 billion. Two of these projects worth Rs 303.92 million are funded by UVAS from its own resources while the others are sponsored by the Higher Education Commission Islamabad and the Punjab government. Recently, the university has also won another development project titled “UVAS Campus Pattoki (Provision of Academic Block and Allied Facilities)” of worth Rs 1465.8 million sponsored by HEC Islamabad. He said UVAS has modernized and digitalized its clinics and labs and internship management system to facilitate the community and students. He urged students to focus on entrepreneurship and become job providers rather than job seekers.
