PESHAWAR: The fifth meeting of the senate of Agriculture University Dera Ismail Khan was held here on Tuesday with Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur in the chair.

This marked the first time the CM chaired a university senate meeting in his capacity as Chancellor of the university. Provincial Minister for Agriculture, Sajjad Barkwal, Secretary Higher Education Department, the Vice Chancellor and other senate members attended the meeting.

The minutes of the previous senate meeting and various statutes of the university were approved in the meeting.

The meeting was briefed on the university`s academic activities, development projects, administrative affairs, issues and other matters. It was informed thatAgriculture University DI Khan was established in 2018 and currently has 1,308 students enrolled in various programmes.

The university is offering five MS/ MPhil programmes, 18 degrees programmes, and 21 diploma courses. The CM emphasised the need for financial discipline, self-sufficiency, improvement in academic standards, and promotion of modern research in public sector universities.

He directed that university degrees and courses be aligned with the demands of the modern job market to improve the employment rate of graduates.

Gandapur instructed that priorities be set for the construction of the university`s building and that work begin without delay. APP