2	AKU as an Institution of Distinction and Quality
		In our review, in Section VI above of "AKU at Age Ten" we have been pleased to find the University moving toward becoming the institution of distinction and quality it was aspired to be. As we now look twenty or thirty years ahead, we ask ourselves what developments must be continued or accentuated to fulfil the vision of what AKU should be.
		We must stress at the outset that AKU is a Muslim university that is open to all qualified comers and maintains the atmosphere of free inquiry that has been the life-giving medium of great universities. This is already a very important basis of its distinction. We have noted in Section III the rarity of such institutions in the Muslim world. Later in this Section we shall address what must be (lone to preserve and strengthen this distinctive combination of qualities. But first we look at the characteristics of great universities in other parts ofthe world.
		Universities in the modern world attain high distinction in two broad ways : (1) through the quality and breadth of the education they provide, and (2) through their commitment to the advancement of knowledge.These two forms of distinction tend to go together and the coincidence is not accidental. The great universities of the world have educated leaders of the professions and public life in their countries. They have not been institutions devoted purely to research; but, on other hand they have not been able to rest content with the mere transmission of knowledge to however important a group of students; they have had to contribute actively to the advancement of knowledge.
		Universities commonly seek to respond to evident needs of the communities or countries where they are established. They seek to be "relevant" by providing education and services of many kinds, including, sometimes, research services so motivated. Some universities, public and private, have grown to great size and made major contributions by responding to the needs of large populations without seeking to be prestigious or to achieve high intellectual distinction in the fields of their efforts. They have gone about their useful work on their home grounds with indifference to applause or influence elsewhere. There have, on the other hand, been important historical movements, exemplified in the landgrant universities of the United States, the "open" universities, or the 1970s "developmental universities" for the Third World that have advertised and promoted the responsive and service functions of universities. There are hazards in wandering too far from the classic roles and character of universities in this pursuit of responsiveness, as the horseshoeing courses of early land-grant colleges and the political entanglements of the "developmental universities" have shown. But it is evident that universities can become models of relevance and service, as we have already noted AKU's becoming in Pakistan. The educational programmes and the services a university provides may thus be an important source of their prestige and distinction, provided they maintain high levels of quality. They, nevertheless, are less critical to high distinction than the contributions to knowledge a university makes. (The leading American universities, including some landgrant universities, call themselves "research"' universities.)
		There are in the world many institutions of higher learning that have not grown beyond one or two professional faculties. Without denigrating their utility and accomplishments, it must be said that universities of high distinction have broader concerns. They typically have a breadth of concern that transcends professional specialties and may even be in principle unbounded (as the President of Harvard recently dared to say). In the modern world, the sciences have come to have particular importance; it is doubtful that any university can now be genuinely distinguished without being strong in the sciences, and this of course means that they must be strong in scientific research. Examples like the California and Massachusetts institutes of technology suggest that high distinction in the arts may be less critical. But it has been typical for distinguished universities to be strong in both these great branches of higher learning, or at least strive to be.
		The implications of these observations for AKU's future course to distinction should be evident. We have been conscious that AKU is a small institution and the growth we foresee for it will not basically change the strategies it must follow. It must preserve its character as an open, Muslim university devoted to free inquiry, and it must do things that have a radiating influence beyond its own classrooms, laboratories and clinics. In Section V above we have applauded the successes it has had thus far in developing models of high quality education in response to important needs; the growing importance of private higher education in the developing world increases AKU's potential in these respects. We have also noted the spreading of its influence through pilot projects and consultations that contribute to policy-making, public and private. These achievements must continue, and be strengthened, as the decades move on, by contributions through research and the careers of its graduates. Like other universities of distinction, AKU must build the capacity to contribute to the advancement of knowledge; it must be strong in the sciences and be concerned in some degree with the broad spectrum of learning from the sciences to the humanities.

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