Kabul University is located in Kabul

Kabul

Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

, the capital of Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. It was founded in 1931 but officially opened for classes in 1932. Kabul University is currently attended by approximately 7,000 students, of which 1,700 are women. As of 2008, Hamidullah Amin

Hamidullah Amin

Hamidullah Amin is an Afghan geographer, and the chancellor of Kabul University. He has held the post since 2008, having also worked at the university prior to fleeing Afghanistan in 1988....

 is the chancellor

Chancellor (education)

A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....

 of the university. The university is still recovering from the long period of war and chaos in the country. The main building was renovated about 500 meters from the old one, which has almost the same design.

Kabul University consists of 14 faculties in fields of Agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

, Economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

, Pharmacy

Pharmacy

Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...

, Islamic Studies

Islamic studies

In a Muslim context, Islamic studies can be an umbrella term for all virtually all of academia, both originally researched and as defined by the Islamization of knowledge...

, Law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, Language and Literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

, Science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

, Computer Science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

, Engineering

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

, Journalism

Journalism

Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

, Veterinary medicine

Veterinary medicine

Veterinary Medicine is the branch of science that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in non-human animals...

, Social Science, Psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

, Geoscience and Fine Arts.

Name

There is some debate on the name of the university. Officially, the university is known by the Pashto name Da Kābul Pohantūn (دکابل پوهنتون). Recently, it has been suggested to use three different official names in Pashto, Persian (دانشگاه کابل) and English (University of Kabul); most of all, because Persian-speaking students feel discriminated by the governmental ban of the Persian word for university. This led to a clash between students and the police in November 2008, as mostly Persian-speaking students demanded to lift the ban on Persian words.

Previously, the Minister of Culture, Information, Tourism and Youth Affairs

Council of Ministers (Afghanistan)

The Council of Ministers was the governmental organ in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and later the Republic of Afghanistan. The leader of the Council of Ministers choose ministers for the different ministeral posts in the country. Under the leadership of Nur Mohammad Taraki, Hafizullah...

, Karim Khoram

Karim Khoram

Abdul Karim Khoram is the current Minister of Culture, Information, Tourism and Youth Affairs of Afghanistan in the cabinet of Hamid Karzai.-Biography:...

, had decided to ban the use of Persian expressions in government institutions and in state-controlled media, and a young journalist for a state newspaper was fined for using the Persian word for university in a report. A similar clash took place a few weeks earlier in the mostly Persian-speaking city of Mazar-e Sharif

Mazar-e Sharif

Mazār-i-Sharīf or Mazār-e Sharīf is the fourth largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 375,000 as of 2006. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by roads to Kunduz in the east, Kabul in the south-east, Herat to the west and Uzbekistan to the north...

 in northern Afghanistan. As a result, that university's name was officially changed from Pashto (Pohantūn-e Balkh) to Persian (Dāneshgāh-e Balkh).

History

Kabul University was established in 1931 during the reign of Mohammed Nadir Shah

Mohammed Nadir Shah

Mohammed Nadir Shah was King of Afghanistan from 15 October 1929 until his assassination in 1933. Previously, he served as Minister of War, Afghan Ambassador to France, and as a general in the military of Afghanistan...

 and then Prime Minister

Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

 Mohammad Hashim Khan, opening its doors one year later to students from across the country. Having benefited from partnerships with the governments of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 the university became one of the finest institutions of its kind in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, the intellectual heart of the country.

In the 1960s foreign-educated scholars populated the campus, exposing the new generation to new topics such as communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

, feminism

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

 and capitalism

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

. Students influenced during this era included Ahmad Shah Massoud, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan Mujahideen leader who is the founder and leader of the Hezb-e Islami political party and paramilitary group. Hekmatyar was a rebel military commander during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and was one of the key figures in the civil war that followed the...

, Dr. Faiz Ahmad

Faiz Ahmad

Dr. Faiz Ahmad was the founding leader of the Afghanistan Liberation Organization , a Marxist-Leninist organization established in Kabul.Ahmad was born in Kandahar, Afghanistan...

, and Saydal Sokhandan

Saydal Sokhandan

Saydal Sokhandan was an Afghan poet, a Maoist activist, and a student leader. He was studying at the Kabul University in early 70's. He was a speaker, who organized pro-Progressive Youth Organization students in the university...

.

Many different political groups were influenced in the University such as Khaliqis

Khalq

Khalq was a faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. Its historical leaders were Presidents Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin. It was also the name of the leftist newspaper produced by the same movement. It was supported by the USSR and was formed in 1965 when the PDPA was born...

, Parcham

Parcham

Parcham was the name of one of the factions of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. The Parcham faction seized power in the country after toppling Hafizullah Amin....

is, Sholayees

Shola-y-Jaweid

Sholah-ye Javid was a Maoist political party founded around 1964 in the Kingdom of Afghanistan. Its strategy was populist, gaining support from students, Shia Muslims, professionals, and the Hazara...

, Ikhwan

Ikhwan

The Ikhwan was the Islamic religious militia which formed the main military force of the Arabian ruler Ibn Saud and played a key role in establishing him as ruler of most of the Arabian Peninsula, in his new state of Saudi Arabia. The Ikhwan were made up of Bedouin tribes...

is, and etc.

In a clash between Ikhwanis and Sholayees, a poet named Saydal Sokhandan was killed by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in the 1970s. Saydal was fired upon and shot by Gulbuddin during an argument.

During the governance of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA)

People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan

The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan was a communist party established on the 1 January 1965. While a minority, the party helped former president of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, to overthrow his cousin, Mohammed Zahir Shah, and established Daoud's Republic of Afghanistan...

, Kabul University lost several lecturers and staff. The majority of the university's faculty left during the 10 year period of unrest or civil war that followed after the fall of the PDPA government in 1992.

Rebuilding

After the removal of the Taliban government

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was founded in 1996 when the Taliban began their rule of Afghanistan and ended with their fall from power in 2001...

 in late 2001, the international community focused on rebuilding all the educational institutions in Afghanistan. By January 2004, the campus had only 24 computers and one stethoscope

Stethoscope

The stethoscope is an acoustic medical device for auscultation, or listening to the internal sounds of an animal body. It is often used to listen to lung and heart sounds. It is also used to listen to intestines and blood flow in arteries and veins...

. As part of its recovery program, Kabul University has established partnerships with four foreign universities, including Purdue University

Purdue University

Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...

 and the University of Arizona

University of Arizona

The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

. It was reported in 2007 that Iran donated funds to Kabul University's dentistry

Dentistry

Dentistry is the branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. Dentistry is widely considered...

 faculty. It also donated 25,000 books to the university. The main library of Kabul University was built by the United States, which is the best-equipped library in Afghanistan. It is equipped with many computers, books and magazines. Nancy Dupree, wife of Louis Dupree

Louis Dupree (professor)

Professor Louis Duprée was an American archaeologist, anthropologist, and scholar of Afghan culture and history. He was the husband of Nancy Hatch Duprée, who is the Board Director of the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University in Afghanistan and author of five books about Afghanistan...

, is the Director of the Afghanistan Center at the university.

In 2008, the campus of Kabul University was provided with the local network facilities by the Information Technology

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

 center of Kabul University (ITCK). Currently each building is connected to the campus network and is provided with the internet connection from a fiber optic backbone. The Voice over IP (VoIP) technology was also part of the networking project and was successfully implemented.

Structure

• The Faculty of Law and Political Science, has two departments: Law and Management(Political Science).

• The Faculty of Computer Science, was previously a department of the faculty of science.

• The Faculty of Economic , has four Department 1.statistic department 2.financial department 3.business administration 4. national Economic departement

• The Faculty of Science, has four departments: Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics .

• The Faculty of Engineering, has four departments: Architecture, Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering. An estimated 600 students are taking classes there.

• The Faculty of Pharmacy, has five departments: Pharmacognosy, Pharmacology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmaceutics and Biochemistry and Food Analysis. It has seven functioning laboratories and recently the new curriculum of this faculty has been approved and is being implemented. An estimated 400 students are taking classes there.

• The Faculty of Agriculture, has six departments: Agricultural Economics, Agronomy, Animal Science, Forestry and Natural Resources, Horticulture, and Plant Protection.

• The Faculty of Veterinary Science, has five departments: Paraclinic, Preclinic, Clinic, Animal Husbandry, and Food Hygiene.

• The Faculty of Journalism, has two departments: Radio & Television and Printing Press.

• The Allama Iqbal
  Muhammad Iqbal
  Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
  
   Faculty of Arts, built at a cost of around $10 million by neighboring Pakistan was established in 2010. The building contains 28 classrooms, two seminar-halls, library, two computer labs, 20 faculty offices. it coveres an area of 143379 square feet (13,320.3 m²), which would help the university in accommodating several faculties of social sciences. Afghan and Pakistani officials innaugurated the new building in July 2010.

Library

In 1992, the library held 200,000 books, 5,000 manuscripts, 3,000 rare books, periodicals, photographs and calligraphic specimens. Following a civil war, most materials were sold in book markets, burnt, destroyed or lost. It served as the National Library of Afghanistan.

Notable lecturers and alumni

• Abdul Hashim Sahak (Professor)
• Baz Mohammad Sherzad  (Professor)
• Abdul Qahar Samin (Professor)
• Ghulam Mohammad Bahram (Professor)
• Fazluddin Fazl (Professor)
• Wasef Bakhtari
  Wasef Bakhtari
  Wasef Bakhtari is a renowned Persian poet, literary figure and intellectual.-Life and education:Even though his father was from Kabul, he spent most of his childhood in Mazari Sharif. He attended Bakhtar School for his primary and for most of his secondary education. After his family moved to...
  
   (Professor)
• Hamida Barmaki
  Hamida Barmaki
  Ass. Prof. Hamida Barmaki was a renowned Afghan law professor and human rights activist. She was killed in a suicide attack with her entire family.- Academic career :Hamida Barmaki was born in Kabul on 4 January 1970...
  
   (Law Professor and Child Rights Commissioner)
• Mawlana Faizani
  Mawlana Faizani
  Mawlana Faizani was born 17 April 1923 in Herat, Afghanistan to a family of miagan...
  
   (Philosopher and reformer)
• Nancy Dupree, expert on the History of Afghanistan
  History of Afghanistan
  The written history of Afghanistan can be traced back to the Achaemenid Empire ca. 500 BCE, although evidence indicates that an advanced degree of urbanized culture has existed in the land since between 3000 and 2000 BCE. Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army arrived to Afghanistan in 330 BCE...
  
  
• Saeed Nafisi (Professor)
• Abdul Wahed Zia (Professor)

External links

• Official website of Kabul University