The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Monday celebrated 199th birth anniversary of its founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan with hundreds of students and guests participating in it.
The chief guest at the event was the University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Professor Ved Prakash.
Delivering the presidential address, AMU Vice Chancellor, Lt General (retd) Zameer Uddin Shah said that students can celebrate next year’s Sir Syed Day by doing research, which not only marks the importance of the occasion but takes the University standards to a new level.
He further said that this will be a better way of celebrations than merely giving speeches.
The main programme was organised at Kennedy Hall Auditorium at the campus.
Sir Syed’s birth anniversary in the Aligarh community is more popularly known as the ‘Sir Syed Day’.
The next year AMU will celebrate the bicentennial anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Ved Prakash said that said that in order to become the number one university in the country, AMU or any other university will have to revise their curriculums, create knowledge and give impetus to analytical reasoning.
“I am glad to see that AMU has the aspirations to lead the university rankings and its teachers, students and scholars are working in the right direction,” Prof Prakash added.
AMU Students’ Union president Faizul Hasan also handed a memorandum to UGC chairman with a host of demands including setting up of an aeronautical engineering department, graduate journalism courses and a pharmacology department.
Delivering the welcome address, AMU Pro Vice Chancellor, Brigadier S Ahmad Ali said there is no doubt that AMU was founded to uplift Muslims, but the University was always open to all communities.
“AMU’s first graduate Ishwari Prasad was a Hindu and the University boosts of representation of people from different communities in various faculties, departments and offices,” said the Pro VC.