Dr. Muhammad Arshad received his MS and PhD degrees in Agricultural Systems from Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, Thailand in May 2009 and August 2012, respectively, under scholarship program of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Dr. Arshad is currently working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Agriculture & Food Technology, Karakoram International University, Gilgit, Pakistan. He joined this Department in September 2012 under Interim Placement of Fresh PhDs (IPFP) program of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan for a period of one year. Thereafter, he served this Department as contractual and visiting faculty till 2017. He was appointed as TTS faculty in March 2017 through selection board, completed mid review evaluation of TTS and is still serving the same Department.
Since Dr Arshad joined the Department of Agriculture & Food Technology, he has contributed tremendously to start and uplift agriculture program in the university. He is holding key responsibilities of the Department as as Course Coordinator, Department Graduate Advisor, Program Team Member of QEC KIU and Career Counselor. Moreover, he completes day to day assignments given by the Chairman of the Department and support him to run departmental programs successfully.
While serving at KIU Dr Arshad has submitted several research proposals to hunt research grants from various funding agencies. However, he succeeded to brought huge research funding from a few organizations i.e., Pakistan Science Foundation, Higher Education Commission, United Nations Development Program. Through these field-oriented research projects, Dr. Arshad is contributing greatly to solve problems of agriculture sector in mountainous area of Gilgit Baltistan where farmers are being benefited directly. Dr. Arshad has strengthened the Department for agricultural research through bringing advanced research equipments i.e., Sun Scan Canopy Analysis System, Geographic Positioning System (GPS), Soil Sampling Kit, Soil Moisture Sensor etc. Moreover, through one of his research project Dr. Arshad has established a Hydroponic Unit for the Department.
Despite very limited research facilities available at the university (KIU), Dr. Arshad has published a good number of research manuscripts in reputable research journals and a few research manuscripts are under review. He has extensive linkages with research groups of his fellows in other universities for collaboration and contribution in joint research activities. Dr Arshad teaches four courses equal to twelve credit hours per semester in the Department. He is a good teacher who always teaches his students to do hardwork to succeed in life. Apart from teaching, Dr. Arshad has supervised a good number of research students of both BS and MS levels.
Dr. Arshad has always been working in close collaboration with Chairman/ Head of the Department to run departmental activities smoothly. He manages and monitors class timetable and exam conditions in the Department. He reviews the research theses and organizes defense seminars of graduating students. He develops and review Self-Assessment Reports of different programs of the Department for accreditation from the National Agricultural Education Accreditation Council of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.