Principal Canon Dr. Titus Presler confirmed today the news reports circulating yesterday that the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Government has notified the College that it intends to make a grant of rupees 300 million to the College to assist its development toward the degree-granting status that it has been preparing for over the past year.
“This major grant will assist Edwardes with academic and physical facilities vital to the degree-awarding status that will enhance our educational contribution to the province,” Dr. Presler said. “We also celebrate the confidence that Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hot, the Higher Education Regulatory Authority, and the Provincial Government as a whole have expressed in Edwards through this grant.”
The College Management Team had been consulting with provincial government officials for about nine months, the Principal said. Vice Principal KalimUllah, who has served Edwardes for 36 years, said, “Edwardes is cradle of academic learning and a community of inter-faith understanding.
“Edwardes College is one of our major institutions, and we are delighted that the province is offering this boost at a turning-point in the College’s history,” said Bishop Humphrey Sarfaraz Peters, Bishop of the Diocese of Peshawar, which is the College’s sponsoring body, and Vice Chair of the BoG.
Major projects to be funded by the grant include support for faculty higher studies; enhancement of library resources; enhancement of biology, chemistry, computer, physics and statistics laboratories; and additional premises for the expanded programmes that degree-awarding status will bring.
The College is planning an event at which the Chief Minister, himself an Edwardes graduate, will officially announce the grant. The provincial grant will constitute the Edwardes College Development Fund, for which a separate account is being opened.
Edwardes College currently has about 2,950 students enrolled in nine academic programmes ranging from FSc to HND and MBA. The student body includes 230 women and about 200 students from religious minorities. The most recent faculty intake of 19 brought the faculty number to 105.
This year the Integrity Project is reaching every Edwardes student with weekly discussions of character-building topics: Purposes of Education, Discernment of Talents, Ethical Understanding, Moral Behavior, Gender Relations, Diversity Tolerance, Social Responsibility, and Servant Leadership. The English Immersion Programme before the opening of the academic year in September exposed every entering student to 12 days of immersion in spoken English.
In its purpose statements, the College states, “The mission of Edwardes College is to educate and develop professionals who will be servant leaders in meeting the challenges and opportunities of Pakistan today.”
