A GRANT of £2 million
made by the Pakistani government to Pakistan's only Church of
Pakistan college is a "heartening" expression of confidence in the
higher education offered by the Church, the Principal of Edwardes
College, the Revd Dr Titus Presler, said earlier this month.
The developmental grant
from the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, received last
month, will help fund the academic programmes and physical
facilities that are part of the college's push towards
degree-awarding status.
The Bishop of Peshawar,
the Rt Revd Humphrey S. Peters, said that he was "delighted" by the
grant, which came "at a turning-point in the college's
history".
At present, degrees at
the college are awarded by the University of Peshawar. Gaining
degree-awarding status, Dr Presler said, would enable Edwardes
College to "extend its unique contribution" to higher education in
the region, and give it greater freedom to determine its curriculum
and syllabus.
The change in status will
necessitate changes to the governance of the college, and the
advice of the Higher Education Commission in Pakistan had been
sought with regard to developing a charter, Dr Presler said.
Following its recommendations, the head of the college's sponsoring
body, the diocese of Peshawar, would become the Chancellor and the
Chair of the Board of Governors. Members of the board would
increase in number from eight or ten to 21, and would include the
Secretary of Higher Education of the province, and the Chancellor
of the University of Peshawar.
Edwardes College was
founded in 1900 by the Church Missionary Society, and has been
owned by the Lahore Diocesan Trust Association since 1956. Of its
2950 students, 92 per cent are Muslim, and seven per cent
Christian; among the 105 faculty members the percentages are
similar.
Women and socially disadvantaged groups, such as religious
minorities, make up eight per cent of the students and 17 per cent
of the faculty, proportions that the college is trying to increase.
It had, Dr Presler said, "a particular vocation to develop
interfaith community in a polarised environment."