Spread over 1200 acres of land, the University of Karachi was established through the parliament as a Federal University in 1951. However, through another act of the parliament in 1962, its status was redefined as the university of the province of Sindh. On 23rd October 1950, the Karachi University Act was passed and after an amendment in 1951, it was enacted, and Prof A. B. A Haleem was appointed as its first Vice-Chancellor. For the first two years, the University of Karachi remained as an examination University for the affiliated colleges. In the year 1953, it started its teaching and research activities at two Faculties of Arts and Science. Opened with an initial intake of 50 students, the university is now a sprawling structure of 53 Departments and 20 world-class and highly reputable Research Centers and Institutes, under eight faculties of Arts, Science, Islamic Studies, Pharmacy, Management, and Administrative Sciences, Law, Education, and Medicine. At present, the enrolment of regular students at the Campus is slightly over 24,000. There are over 800 teachers and more than 2500 supporting staff.
The Karachi University today is the biggest in the country. It comprises eight faculties with which all the colleges of the city are affiliated. B.S., M.S., M.Phil. and Ph.D. classes under five of these faculties Arts, Science, Pharmacy, Management and Administrative Science and Islamic Learning are conducted on the campus, while under the Faculties of Medicine, law, and Education it examines the students admitted to their affiliated colleges. Research programmers leading to M.Phil and Ph.D. The degree is offered under all the faculties.
The Science Faculty which consists of 23 departments and five research Institutes can be said to be the biggest science center in the country. The Research Institutes include the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, which is world-renowned and has also been designated the World Academy of Science. It is the prime research institute of the country and has high-level research faculties for chemical science particularly Natural Product Chemistry.
The library of the university is one of the largest libraries in the country. Housed in a spacious building, it has a collection of over 360,000 books and over 110,000 copies of national and foreign journals and periodicals. There is also a microfilm section that has copies of rare manuscripts from the British Museum, the India Office Library, and the Bodleian and Cambridge University libraries.
A highlight of the library is Quaid-i-Azam's collection of books, many of which carry his signature. Copies of the All India Muslim League papers are also available. Work is in progress for setting up a resource center, equipped with internet and scanner microfiche. Now, the Central Library is being gradually digitalized and will be able to cater to a larger number of students. The LEJ National Science Centre is the most significant addition to the Karachi University which is a recent development.
The center not only houses one of the largest digital libraries of the mechanism and capacity to assist another campus library by resources and provide leadership in the application of technology to help the researchers, scientists, but scholars and students of academic and R&D institutions of Pakistan Facilities of video conferencing are also available and fully operative. Besides the central library, every department also has its seminar library equipped with the necessary books.
The University of Karachi introduced the Evening program in 1995 to provide an opportunity to the in-service peoples and professionals to pursue higher education in the evening initially at a few departments The program started while gradually the number of departments offering degree courses in the evening has increased.
Four-Year Degree Program: The latest development this year is the introduction of a four-year degree program at the University to bring the university education to par with the International standards. In the revised curricula of four years program, a number of the new subject have been added to enable the passed out students to have wider opportunities in the job market.
The University has now embraced a gigantic process of multifaceted progress with an emphasis on capacity building and quality enchantment. Ever since its inception, it is in this era that constitutional and statutory bodies of the university are holding their meeting at regular intervals, further bolstering the process.
Already completed Botanical Garden is first of its kind in the country. The Garden adds plenty of beauty to the campus on the one hand while on the other it serves as an open lab for Plant scientists.
Construction of hostels for the visiting faculty and research scholars and additional facilities for M.Phil/Ph.D scholars have further enhanced chances for quality and speedy research. The perennial residential problems at the campus are also expected to solve partially with the completion of new blocks of the staff apartments. All these and many other successes were due to active encouragements the university received from the Higher Education Commission and the Chancellor of the University.
Several new development projects are on the anvil while many others are at various stages of completion. The University is now moving fast on the path of developments playing its due role in the national development.
