Professor Zia-ul-Qayyum, Chairman, Governing Board, SAU, and Executive Director, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, visited the South Asian University. His visit was marked by his special remarks at the Institute of South Asian Studies(ISAS), at SAU, which organised the Annual Distinguished Lecture series on Academic Excellence. The first lecture of this series was delivered by the President SAU, Prof K K Aggarwal, and Chaired by Professor Zia-ul-Qayyum. In his remarks Prof Qayyum underlined that SAU was a unique institution, given its mandate and character, and can play a pivotal role in imparting education across borders to all members of the SAARC Countries. His visit was also marked by his interactions with higher officials,  Deans, Chairperson, faculty and students at SAU.

Prof Qayyum underlined that he was impressed with the state of art campus, and highlighted  the need to nurture and build more academic collaborations and partnerships across SAARC countries. In his remarks he underlined the pivotal role that SAU can play in the region, given the common challenges  that all countries of SAARC region face today. He further added that young people are the catalyst of change, and education can bring a positive change in the lives of the people in the region.

Prof K K Aggarwal who was also the first founding Vice Chancellor of Indraprastha University and former Chairman National Board of Accreditation, stressed that SAU was a unique institution focussed on the SAARC region. He underlined that besides conventional disciplinary programmes, SAU is also focussed on establishing centres of excellence, like Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change, Green Transition, and Sustainability and Institute of South Asian Studies. The Institute of South Asian Studies was recently launched and Prof Sanjay Chaturvedi, its Director also underlined that core of the rationale behind the South Asian University is- Southasianess -an idea that builds bridges across borders.