Niaz Ahmad Akhtar

Dr. Niaz Ahmad Akhtar, receiving Sitara-i-Imtiaz at the Governor House, Lahore, Pakistan

Akhtar was born on 15 June, 1962 [8] in Basti Dosa, Dera Ghazi Khan.[9] He has an undergraduate and a master's degree in Chemical Engineering, from the University of the Punjab, Lahore.[8][9] He did his doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of Leeds, UK in 1995.[1]

Akhtar began his teaching career at the University of the Punjab as a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering in 1988. In 1995, he went to Bahrain and became the Senior Lecturer and Head of Chemical Engineering Discipline at the Bahrain Training Institute. He came back to serve his country in 2001 and joined as an Associate Professor at the Institute of Chemical Engineering & Technology, University of the Punjab. In 2004, he became a Professor at the University of the Punjab, Lahore and served in this capacity until 2009. In 2002, Akhtar established Quality Management Division under the Institute of Chemical Engineering & Technology with following two objectives:

• To produce Quality Professionals to serve in Manufacturing & Services Sector.

• To formulate Quality Standards for Higher Education Sector in the country.

This Division was upgraded to Institute of Quality & Technology Management in 2004 and Akhtar was appointed as the founding director of this institute. The institute is presently offering BS, MS, & PhD degree in field of Industrial Engineering & Quality Management. Akhtar has also served as Founder Director of the Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) and the Director Student Affairs at the University of the Punjab.[8][9][10]

As the Rector of National Textile University, he created four new faculties and ten new departments, growing the number of students by three times, faculty strength by four times and revenue of the university by five times.[11] He launched new programs in Textile Engineering including Ph.D. program in Textile Engineering, Textile Design, Fashion Design and Polymer Engineering. He also established National Textile Research Centre.[12] Furthermore he revived Plastic Technology Centre and Synthetic Fibre Development Centre, Karachi as the Constituted Units of the National Textile University. Due to his outstanding contribution, he was awarded with the gold medal by BOG of the National Textile University. [13]

In 2014, he became the Vice Chancellor of the University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila. In addition to increasing the number of students and faculty, he started many new programs including 12 new BS, MS and Ph.D. programs.[14] He established new centers including Technology Incubation Center, Staff Development Center, E-Rozgaar Center and Social Entrepreneurship Center. He established Departments of Computer Sciences, Electronics Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Basic Sciences in a state-of-art new Academic Block.[15][16] He was also instrumental in getting approved of the University Statues in 2017.[17][18][19] Owing to his significant contributions, he was decorated with the National Award of Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 2015, in the Field of Education (Engineering & Technology). Akhtar has helped start new programs at Information Technology University.[20][21][22][23]

In 2018 Akhtar joined University of the Punjab as the Vice-Chancellor.[24][25][26] From 2018 to 2020, developments in the areas of good governance, academic and research outputs are notable at University of the Punjab.[27][28] Four new centers including Cancer Research Centre, and Social Entrepreneurship Centre have been established. Compared to 2018, PU has improved its ranking form 78% to 68% amongst the top ranked institutions of the world.[29][30] In 2019, world renowned publication nature ranked University of the Punjab as No. 1 institution in Natural Sciences in Pakistan.[31][32] In addition, 243 PhDs were produced for the first time in PU's history in one year. He has contributed immensely towards digitalization of PU including online admissions and online faculty recruitment reform. He has enabled drastic increase in research funding (from 75 to 380 million) to significantly reform research output at PU.

Ahktar served as Vice-Chairman (Punjab) of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) for over 6 years.[11] Through his work for the accreditation of engineering programs, Pakistan became a signatory of the Washington Accord, earning international recognition for Pakistani Engineers.

Akhtar has published/edited four books on "Quality Assurance in Higher Education" .[8] He has published research articles in high impact journals.[8] He served as the Chief Editor of the Journal of Quality & Innovation (2005-2017) and Member Advisory Board, Journal of Quality Assurance in Education (Emerald Journal).[33][34]

• Outstanding Performance Award, Bahrain - (1999)
• Institution of Engineers Pakistan, National Award of Excellence - (2008, 2009 & 2015)
• Best Research Paper, Award by HEC - (2012)
• Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Government of Pakistan - (2015)
• Outstanding Performance Award of Gold Medal from the of BOG of National Textile University - (2015)
• Pakistan Institute of Chemical Engineers, Gold Medal - (2016)
• Pakistan Engineering Council, Gold Medal - (2017)

• "Quality Assurance in Higher Education, A Global Perspective" edited by Dr. Abdul Raouf and Dr. Niaz Ahmad published by Higher Education Commission, 2008.[35][36]

• "Quality in Higher Education: Challenges and Practices" Prof. Dr. Abdul Raouf, Prof. Dr. Riaz Hussain Qureshi and Prof. Dr. Niaz Ahmad published by Punjab University, 2009.[35][36]

• Higher Education Quality "Assurance and Assessment" edited by Dr. Abdul Raouf , Dr. Niaz Ahmad and Dr. Usman Awan published by Punjab University, 2011.[35][36]

• "Emissions from Circulating Fluidized Bed" by Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, ISBN: 978-3-659-48358-5 K.Shahzad, N.A. Akhtar[35]