BZU, University, bzu_multanConcise Information on Bahauddin Zakaraiya University Multan (BZU)

BZU Multan is short for Bahauddin Zakaraiya University, which is the largest university in the entire Southern Punjab region.

The Mystery Behind the Name: BZU Multan

The Multan university has been named after a sufi saint, Abu Muhammad Bahauddin Zakariya [1170-1267], who lived in Multan and is buried there. His tomb is situated in the heart of the Multan city near Hussain Agahi Intersection.

BZU Multan was established back in 1975 and at the time it was named Multan University, but the name was later changed in 1979, in honour of the sufi saint.

Campus Location of BZU Multan

BZU Multan is located in the outskirts of the city, close to Multan bypass on Bosan Road.

The campus of the university is huge by any standard, spread over a whopping 960 acres or 40 morabbas…..!!

Three Main Functions of BZU Multan

The university claims that it performs three major tasks for students which are:

Therefore, it provides these services to students and colleges respectively who are interested in its higher education degrees.

Degrees Offered by Bahauddin Zakaraiya University Multan

The university is actually diversified in its list of degrees and courses offered. It does not offer degrees in specific categories only such as engineering or arts. Rather it offers courses in a host of disciplines; the degrees offered by the university include the following:

BZU Multan awards degrees in more than sixty [60] subjects and all of its degrees are duly recognized by the Higher Education Commission [HEC], the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council [PMDC], and the Pakistan Engineering Council [PEC].

Prominent College Affiliations With BZU Multan

In addition to this, at least one-thirty-five [135] colleges are affiliated with BZU Multan, offering degrees of the university to their enrolled students. The most prominent of these affiliated colleges are as follows:

Distance Learning Program by BZU Multan

Taking the lead from Allama Iqbal Open University [AIOU] and more recently, Virtual University of Pakistan [VUoP], BZU Multan has also initiated, and is successfully running a distance learning program which is said to be very popular with students.

There are two different systems used by the university for teaching students as part of the distance learning program.

Twice a week, the university makes use of the CMS to teach students which is basically teaching students on-site at the university campus.

For the remaining five days, it is the LMS which is used to impart education to students based in remote locations.

The success of the distance learning program can be gauged by the fact that according to pk.shafaqna.com it is now considered to be the best program of this category by the World Bank [WB] in the entire South East Asia region. This is courtesy of the latest equipment used in the program as well as the effective tabs on the level of education being imparted to students.

The director of the distance learning program, Prof Dr. Ishaque Fani, is said to be the mainstay behind the success of the program. The professor also announced his decision to add a digital library to the distance learning program which will have at least a hundred thousand books available to students for a start.

It is also believed that the success of the distance learning program of BZU Multan has been so phenomenal that it is earning tens of millions of rupees for the university in the form of revenues through it!

Website of BZU Multan

Bahauddin Zakaraiya University Multan maintains a colorful website with a lot of information and academic resources available for its students. The website offers resources such as admission forms, contact details for the university, news about the events held at the campus, past papers for preparation, results of examinations conducted at the university, an online testing service, and information on the scholarships available, so on and so forth.

Parks in BZU Multan

This huge size of the university gives the students a lot of peace and tranquil to study far away from the city center, so they are not bothered by the noise or pollution of the city traffic.

There are many parks constructed on campus for students so that they can make good use of them. Students therefore frequently take to studying in these parks as they provide a relaxing environment to study for hours on end.

Also, there are football, cricket, and a number of tennis grounds for students in the university to keep themselves engaged in healthy activities.

Boys and Girls Hostels

There are six [6] hostels each for boys and girls in BZU Multan as a high number of students studying in BZU Multan belong to far flung areas.

Still, the current number of hostels are unable to adequately cater to the high number of boarding students. As a result, as against the standard policy of a room being allotted to two [2] students, up to four [4] students have to share a single room in hostels in BZU Multan.

There is a park in front of every hostel as well that serves as both a recreation spot as well as for studying given that students can get bored of staying in at the hostel and seek a change for the better every now and then.

In addition, free Wi-Fi service is made available to students in hostels so they can use it for education and entertainment purposes round-the-clock.

Employees Housing Society in BZU Multan Campus

There is also an Employee Housing Society constructed within the campus of BZU Multan. The society houses a large number of employees of all grades working in the university as houses are allotted to them for the same.

The houses are allotted to individuals depending on their grade as officers serving the university. There are a total of five categories, from A to E, which constitute all the houses in the entire Employees Housing Society.

The difference between the houses allotted in each category is that of the total area of the house as well as the constructed area in it.

Although this category system is the standard practice for allotting homes to officers but if an officer has an acquaintance in the department that allots houses, then he can get away with a house that is in a category which is higher than the one to which he belongs!

For all those personnel who are allotted a house in the university, the house rent is deducted from their salaries on a monthly basis.

In addition, they also have to pay the monthly utility bills such as electricity and gas and water for their houses.

Furnishing of the house as well as installation of air-conditioning, et cetera, is also the responsibility of the occupants.

BZU Campus Security

For purposes of the security of BZU Multan campus, guards are posted at each of the entrances to the university.

In addition, a chowki of Multan Police is situated at the main entrance to the university on Bosan Road.

Further to this, although the life at the university is predominantly peaceful, but in case of any clash between students on campus, Police is called upon immediately to handle the situation appropriately.

Unions of BZU Campus

As per the instructions of the Government of Pakistan, student unions are banned in universities throughout the county. Therefore, there are no student unions in BZU either but there do exist employee unions to safeguard the interests of the employees.

Since there are different categories of employees working in the university, therefore there are different kinds of unions which are active in BZU Multan in this regard.

All three of these employee unions hold protests regularly in the university campus whenever their employees face problems of any sort.

They are strong and effective in ensuring that the demands they put forward to the university management are adequately met and their problems therefore are resolved as soon as possible.

Intra-Management Rivalry at BZU Multan

It has been observed that there are rivalries between individuals who are part of the senior most management structure at BZU Multan.

Some believe that this is due to the fact that individuals who reach the top most levels are part of different lobbies that exist in BZU Multan.

As a result, when they achieve any senior position in the management hierarchy, they have no choice but to pay back the favors to the lobby with which they have been associated for years. This is especially the case when they reach senior management positions only with the help of their associated lobby.

This means that it becomes very difficult for such individuals to remain neutral in their conduct as a result of peer pressure from their lobby group.

This bias in favor of their lobby resultantly leads to a clash of interest between senior management individuals belonging to different lobbies and hence the tussle for power and influence continues.

Construction of the Campus

There is a separate department for construction at BZU Multan, owing to the sprawling campus of the university. The department is currently headed by Mian Aftab Ahmad Sahu.

There are two main activities of the construction department at BZU Multan.

These are the purposes for which the construction department has been created as there constantly arises a need to maintain what has been constructed years ago.

Also, keeping in view the increasing strength of students at the university, new construction is needed every now and then such as the creation of a new hostel to accommodate an additional layer of students.

Funds Management by BZU

There are three [3] separate funds from which the activities of the construction department are financed:

These are the sources which are used to ensure that all the constructed structures at the university are in good shape year-round.

A separate department called “Purchasing” handles all the purchases for the building material necessary for the construction related work.

Mosques

There are about five [5] mosques in the university where students can easily offer their prayers to the Almighty and pray for their high scores in their exams!

Limited Presence of Girls In Certain Departments

The university claims that its student strength is more or less equally divided between males and females. However, it has been observed that there are certain departments in which the presence of girls is almost negligible and these are dominated by boys as a result.

These departments include Engineering and Agriculture, amongst others, which are thought to be male-oriented professions. It is believed that girls do not foresee a career in these sectors. This is especially so in the case of Agriculture as it is next-to-impossible for girls to make their way in this sector, especially after they get married and have children. This is a good reason why they choose not to pursue these sectors for higher education.

Faculty of Bahauddin Zakaraiya University

There are a large number of faculties in BZU Multan which cater to the varied interest of students in subjects of higher education. They are listed as follows:

Within each faculty, there are a large number of departments which all work in unison for the faculty to be able to cover all of the necessary courses.

Journals Published by BZU Multan

A good number of research journals are also published in BZU Multan and hold a lot of importance for purposes of further research into each of the relevant subjects. The journals published from BZU Multan include the following:

As more faculties open in the university as part of its modernization program, it is possible that more journals are added to the existing list of research publications from the university. This would definitely be beneficial for the society in general and the students in particular.

Shuttle Service and University Buses

BZU, bzu_multanBZU Multan has an old and famous shuttle bus service that takes students to and from the university campus considering that it is located out of city. There are two main routes of the shuttle bus service. One of the routes of the shuttle bus service runs from the university campus to Chungi # 9 and back.

The other route is from BZU Multan to chowk kumharan walan and back again.

The bus service runs every thirty minutes on weekdays while on weekends, it runs every sixty minutes.

The university buses are immediately recognizable with their light blue and white color scheme and the university insignia.

The huge fleet of Hino buses has been upgraded over time to increase its capacity to cater to the ever increasing student strength using the shuttle service. However, the fleet is still insufficient for the ever increasing student strength at the university.

As a result, BZU Multan has had to hire a large number of buses from private owners so they can lend a helping hand in transporting university students to and fro from BZU Multan. Nevertheless, students can still be seen filled in the buses like goats and hanging to the doors for want of space!

In addition to this, BZU Multan also has coasters in its fleet that run multiple routes for students as well as for the staff members throughout Multan.

BZU Multan Lahore Campuses

BZU Multan has been improvising on its reach to students and as part of that initiative, it recently opened up two campuses in Lahore.

Sahiwal and Layyah Sub Campuses

BZU Multan also has a sub-campus in Sahiwal, D G Khan and Layyah, where courses are offered and taught by faculty members from Multan.

These sub campus were established in line with the university’s aim of providing higher education to the masses in Southern Punjab.

Former D G Khan Campus of BZU Multan

The university previously also had a sub campus in D G Khan but it has since been converted into Ghazi University that now runs its own setup of education in D G Khan now.