Habib University (HU) () is a university for Liberal arts education located in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

. Funded by the House of Habib, the Habib University Foundation was established in 2010, and was chartered in 2012 as an independent university. Based on a 6.3 acres (295,800 sq ft.) campus in Gulistan-e-Jauhar,

, it is a

multi-disciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

university offering undergraduate degree's in

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

and

social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

. It has a strong liberal arts focus and requires all its students to take a set of liberal arts courses consisting of sociology, history, philosophy and anthropology.

History

In 2010, the House of Habib formed the Habib University Foundation (a not-for-profit organization). The project was launched with a grant of US$40 million. Construction on the campus in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Karachi began in 2012 and classes began in 201

The university has a joint venture contract with

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

for reciprocal sharing of institutional experience and has signed a partnership agreement for the association. HU's first class of undergraduate students began in August 2014. HU Talent Outreach Program (TOPS), launched in 2016, provides selected students a tuition fee waiver for four-year undergraduate program. Wasif Rizvi is the founding President of the University. The university's chief academic officer i
Dr. Aamir Hasan
who serves as Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) and Dean of Faculty.

Campus

The university's campus is located behind the

Jinnah International Airport Jinnah International Airport () , formerly Drigh Road Airport or Karachi International Airport, is Pakistan's busiest international and domestic airport, and handled 7,267,582 passengers in 2017–2018. Located in Karachi, the largest city a ...

runway and covers an area of around 6.3 Acres (295,800 sq ft.). The campus is noted for being one of the few handicapped-accessible campuses in the city and is a non-residential campus. The university's laboratories are designed and furnished by Research Facilities Design. In 2010 the campus design won the Merit Award for Excellence in Planning for New Campus from the

Society for College and University Planning The Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) is a professional association for the integration of planning in higher education institutions. It is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michiga ...

(SCUP). The university's central auditorium covers 25,000 square feet of area, and seats over 300 persons. In addition, the university holds two lecture halls, the Tariq Rafi Lecture Theatre which holds 300 students and the Soorty Lecture Theatre which holds 60 seats. The campus includes several classrooms with not more than 20 seats each. The university also includes an

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (American English, U.S. English: amphitheater) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ('), meani ...

which covers an area of 4500 square feet. The Habib library covers an area of 21,000 square feet and is a semi-public space and is home to information commons, lounges, and discussion rooms.

Academics

The university incorporates a

liberal arts education Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refer to s ...

with cultural sensitivity within its curriculum. It is mandatory for every student studying there to follow the liberal arts curriculum in all its offered courses. In addition to local regional languages, all students are required to study a liberal arts curriculum comprising sociology, history, philosophy – Western, Eastern and Islamic – and anthropology. The university terms this a "Habib Core Curriculum" based on seven "Forms of Thought". The university offers six majors including Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Social Development & Policy, Communication & Design and Comparative Humanities. All classes are modeled after a tutorial system which includes small classes of 12 students. The university has affiliations with

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Pitzer College Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was founded in 1963 as a women's college in the Claremont Colleges consortium and became coeducational in 1970. Pitzer enrolls approximately 1000 students. Pitzer off ...

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, and

; allowing student's to attend summer sessions at these universities. It has a student to teacher ratio of 12:1, and, as of 2016, has 1,000 full-time students. The university is regarded as among Pakistan's most progressive education institute.

Yohsin Lecture Series

Yohsin Lecture Series is a public lecture series modeled after the public lecture series of the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. The Inaugural Yohsin Lecture was delivered by Dr. Munir Fasheh in November 2011. Other prominent speakers have included: the former Dean for

SAIS Sais (, ) was an ancient Egyptian city in the Western Nile Delta on the Canopic branch of the Nile,Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. "Saïs." '' Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary''. 9th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., 19 ...

at the

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, Dr. Vali Nasr,

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

Professor Deborah K. Fitzgerald,

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (; born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative ...

Reza Aslan Reza Aslan (, ; born May 3, 1972) is an Iranian-American scholar of sociology, writer, and television host. A convert to Evangelicalism, evangelical Christianity from Shia Islam as a youth, Aslan eventually reverted to Islam but continued to wr ...

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

and Ashis Nandy.

People

Notable people associated with the university include: * Haziqul Khairi, an eminent jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Federal Shariat Court, Member Board of Governors. * Asif Farrukhi (1959-2020), Associate Professor.

History

Campus

Academics

Yohsin Lecture Series

People

See also

References

Further reading