If you are headed to Islamabad or Rawalpindi, know that nine out of 15 public sector universities have dorms. Public universities Bahria, Air and Wifaqi Urdu university have no dorms. Not a single private or semi-government university in the twin cities offers housing (SZABIST, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences/FAST, and Iqra University).
Places like COMSATS, Islamabad that don’t have on-campus housing still accommodate their students, although far away (Rs45,000 per semester). The assistant warden at its boys’ hostel, Asif Shafi, said they offer subsidised transport.
But one of the girls who lives in a Comsats facility in Sector H-8, 15km from campus, said that if she misses the morning bus, she has to pay Rs200 for a taxi. A better example is QAU Islamabad’s subsidised shuttle service to the city center every 45 minutes.
Rawalpindi Medical College owns four hostels but a student said she and other girls were accommodated six kilometres off campus near Justice Ali Nawaz Chowhan Square on Rawal Road. “Accessing the library is the biggest issue for us,” she added.
Pakistan Institute for Development Economics, Islamabad has two off-campus hostels — for girls in Faizabad and for boys in Chak Shehzad. Although the hostels are far from campus, the institute provides transport in two shifts (Rs2,000 per semester). One student described the hostels as comfortable and peaceful even if they weren’t that big.
