Government College University (Lahore)

Government College University (Lahore)

Former names	Government College (GC)
Motto	Educating People for tomorrow (historical) Courage to Know (present)
Type	Public
Established	1864 (1864)
Chancellor	Governor of Punjab
Vice Chancellor	Prof. Dr. Hassan Amir Shah, SI
Academic staff	436[1]
Students	11,500[1]
Location	Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Campus	Urban
Colours	Blue, goldrod, maroon
Nickname	GCU Lahore GCU
Affiliations	• Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC), • Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC)
Website	www.gcu.edu.pk

The Government College University or GCU is a public research university located in the downtown, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.^[2] Its alumni network includes two Nobel Prize laureates Abdus Salam and Har Gobind Khorana,^[3] as well as philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, World Court President Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, four prime ministers of Pakistan and several Rhodes Scholars.^[4]

It was one of the oldest colleges in Pakistan as well as one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the Muslim world.^[5] It was founded in 1864 as an affiliate college of Calcutta University under the leadership of Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner,^[6] a professor at King's College London. In 1882 it was affiliated with the University of the Punjab. In 2002, It was granted university status by the Government of Pakistan ; the word college is retained in its title for preserving its historical roots.

GCU has grown into one of the largest universities in Lahore with 10,808 students and 376 faculty members with 103 PhDs amongst them offering undergraduate, post-graduate, and doctoral studies with an emphasis on science and arts.^[7] Its departments of physics and mathematics has international prestige.^[8][9] GCU has four faculties, 29 academic departments and four research institutes.^[10]

The GCU secured its second position in the medium category by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) in 2013.^[11] GCU has the highest graduation rate in the country, with an average of 95.5% annually.^[12] Alumni of the GCU are called Ravians which is derived word from the name of the student magazine "Ravi", published by the administration of the college; the magazine name is inspired by the Ravi River.^[13] The GCU is noted for its historical roots and attracted notable scholars such as Leitner, Abdus Salam and philosopher Muhammad Iqbal to studied and became alumnus of the GCU.^[14]

GCU tower

History

Government College, Lahore in the 1880s

Under the British Raj Government College was opened on 1 January 1864 in a portion of the Palace of Raja Dhyan Singh Haveli. The institution was affiliated with the University of Calcutta for examination. Along with the establishment of the college, Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner (professor of Arabic and Islamic Law at King's College in London) was nominated as principal of college. Later, he was instrumental in the foundation of University of the Punjab, established in 1882. The first class consisted of nine students, all of whom matriculated from the University of Calcutta. In April 1871, the college moved to its present site. Eric C. Dickinson became its Principal. He taught English at the Aligarh Muslim University.

In 1996, it received autonomous status; on 9 September 2002, it became a university.

Emblem

The Torch, as the Crest of the university emblem, represents the light of knowledge. The motto "Courage to Know" represents the guiding principle of the student community.

Academic departments

The university consists of the following faculties, centres and teaching departments:

• Centers Chairs
• Center for Advanced Studies in Physics (CASP)
• High Tension Laboratory (now CASP) – established in 1954 by Dr. Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry to carry out research in Atomic and Nuclear Physics.
• Faculty of Engineering: B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering a four-year degree programme and also offers MS Electrical Engineering a two-year degree programme.
• National Center of Mathematics – The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan has established the National Centre for Mathematics (NCM) at the GC University, Lahore for the advancement of Mathematical Sciences in Pakistan and to develop indigenous human resources and research capability in the field of Mathematics.
• Human Resource Development Center (H.R.D.C) – The center has arranged in service teachers training programmes for the GCU faculty on academic and administrative topics.

Abdus Salam Chair in Physics

Government College of Lahore's most prominent alumnus Dr. Abdus Salam who won the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics. Dr. Salam received his BA and MA from the college before moving to Cambridge. He returned to teach at Government College where he taught mathematics, he later moved to Imperial College.

The Abdus Salam Chair in Physics, named after the Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Abdus Salam, is a physics research institute of GCU. The institute became operational in March 2000 with the efforts of Ishfaq Ahmad, a lifelong friend of Salam. In 2009 the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) donated Salam's original Nobel certificate to the Salam Chair in Physics. The former director of ICTP Dr. Katepalli R. Sreenivasan visited Pakistan where he had gifted the original Nobel certificate to GCU alma mater. The certificate reads: "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter-alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current".^[15]

The institute has academic programmes that promote research activity in physics. Some of its achievements include: getting 52 research publications in international journals;.^[16] producing 6 PhD and 25 M.Phil theses; the setting up of a Plasma Technology Lab; and contracting research grants from funding agencies and research centres such as the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Kahuta Research Laboratories (KRL),^[17] Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF)^[18] and Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR).^[16]

Abdus Salam School for Mathematical Sciences (ASSMS)

The Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences (ASSMS) is one of the largest mathematical research institutes in Pakistan.^[19] The school was established in 2003 by the Government of Punjab under the aegis of Government College University.^[20]

The aim of the school is to train professional scientists to pursue the study of scientific and technological problems by mathematical methods, and to undertake research in branches of mathematical sciences. Before the existence of ASSMS, Pakistani mathematicians opted to study abroad for postdoctoral fellowships, however an increasing number of PhD holders from foreign institutions are choosing ASSMS to pursue their postdoctoral fellowships.^[19]

At 2011, ASSMS was labeled as the first "Emerging Regional Centre of Excellence" by the European Mathematical Society.^[21]

ASSMS has taken steps to provide encouragement to Pakistani students in schools and colleges. These include:

• The faculty at the Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences host training camps for students from schools and colleges. The participants of the camps are prepared for the national team of Pakistan to compete at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). In 2005, the national team of Pakistan took part for the first time in IMO. In 2007 Pakistan won the first medal at IMO and the first silver medal in 2012.
• ASSMS has organised mathematics contests at the national level.

Institute of Industrial Bio-Technology

The Institute of Industrial Biotechnology was established in April 2005. Prof Ikram-ul-Haq is the first head of the institute. The Vice Chancellor has consented to launch B.Sc., M.Sc, and M. Phil classes in Biotechnology and constitute a separate Board of Studies for the institute.

Intermediate departments

• Foundation of Arts
• Foundation of Science

Undergraduate departments

Government College portrait

Accommodation

GCU has four hostels - three for boys and one for girls. lqbal Hostel (built in 1891) and Quaid-e-Azam Hostel (built in 1993) accommodate about 150 and 200 Intermediate students respectively. New Hostel (built in 1937) houses about 400 male Degree students. Girls Hostel (built in 1975) accommodates about 50 girl students.

Notable alumni

• 
  Har Gobind Khorana - won the 1968 Nobel Prize in Medicine
• 
  Abdus Salam - won the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics
• 
  Sir Muhammad Iqbal - important figure in Urdu literature.
• 
  Muhammad Zafarullah Khan - former president of both the UNGA and the ICJ
• 
  General Raheel Sharif - Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army, (2013-2016)
• 
  Nawaz Sharif - longest serving Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• 
  Ishfaq Ahmad - theoretical physicist who served at CERN and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
• 
  Faiz Ahmad Faiz - was one of Pakistan's leading Marxist's who won the Lenin Peace Prize.

Others associated with the college

• Ali Ahmad Awan Motivational Speaker and Youngest Social Media Activist
• Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum – 20th-century poet of Urdu, Punjabi and Persian
• Prof Dr Saadat Saeed – poet and writer
• Dr Shuja H. Zaidi – President & CEO, Chem-Energy Corporation. Los Angeles. California. USA
• Rameez Raja (cricket player)
• Abdul Qadir (cricket player)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Government College University, Lahore.

• Official website
• Old notable alumni GC University Lahore
• GCU Lahore Admission
• Video – President of the seventeenth session of General Assembly