India’s Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has been urged to open an entrance test center in the Kingdom to facilitate admission of nonresident Indian students living in this country.

“The move will benefit over 2.2 million nonresident Indians living and working in Saudi Arabia,” said a memorandum sent to the newly appointed AMU Vice Chancellor Zameeruddin Shah, on the occasion of Shah’s felicitation in New Delhi recently.

The memorandum said that Saudi Arabia has had special relation with the AMU, which is one of finest educational institutions not only in India but at the global level too. The late King Saud Bin Abdulaziz, who was conferred an honorary doctorate of law by the AMU on Dec 3, 1955, made a substantial financial donation to build the AMU’s J. N. Medical College at that time.

The felicitation for the new rector organized by the Duty Society and led by professor Abul Hassan Siddiqui, former AMU pro vice chancellor, was attended by a delegation of AMU alumni living in the Kingdom.

A Riyadh-based businessman Nadeem Tarin, who is also an AMU alumni, attended the felicitation ceremony at the India Habitat Center in New Delhi together with other old boys of the university. M. A. A. Fatmi, former minister of state for human resources and Noor-E-Zehra, assistant professor at India’s Sharda University and life member of Duty Society, were present with Indian academics and scholars.

New AMU rector Shah, who was posted at the Indian Embassy in Riyadh as military attache in 1994, said that he would “strive hard to uplift the academic standard of the university.”

Shah also spelled out his priorities as the new vice chancellor of AMU. He spoke in detail about his perception of new centers of AMU, which are being set up in different provinces of India. He said that “he would lay special emphasis on curriculum development, academic standards and discipline on the campus.”

Siddiqui said that Shah, who holds a master's degree in defense studies and another in philosophy, had the distinction to serve as deputy chief of Indian Army Staff. A message of congratulation from the president of Duty Society Khurshid Alam Khan was also read out by Noor-E-Zehra on this occasion. President Khan could not attend the event because of his illness.

Siddiqui, who is also the keeper of the Duty Society, spoke about the role of the society in the establishment and the expansion of the AMU. He presented outlines of three new projects to be initiated soon. The projects include creation of a center/institute for popularizing teaching and research of those areas of Mathematics, which are of vital importance for proper understanding of any emerging field of science and technology.

Siddiqui, who is also visiting consultant for some Middle East universities, also urged to prepare an enlarged edition of the centenary volume entitled “Aligarh Muslim University Contributions and Achievements” published in 1989 on the occasion of the centenary function of the society. He also suggested the idea of holding seminars on the life and achievements of the illustrious men associated with the Duty Society since the very inception of the society.

The Duty Society is an aid giving body affiliated with the AMU to support financially poor and meritorious students. The AMU, established by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, a social and educational reformer of India in 1875, is a public central university in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The university, popularly known as the “Oxford of the east” was designed to educate and train Muslims for government jobs in India and prepare them for advance training and research in Western universities.