Wirtschaftsinformatik - Strolling around at Nangarhar University's huge campus

Nangarhar University (RotaryWebSite, WikiPedia) is Afghanistan's second largest university (about 6.000 students at present). Its campus is located just some kilometers outside of Jalalabad (GoogleMaps) close to one of the major transit routes of Afghanistan (Kabul-Khyber Pass/Pakistan; just beside the fiber-optics cable which links Kabul to Pakistan) and at a distance of approximately 80 km to the Pakistani border. The climate is mild, the area has sufficient water resources, an excellent 24/7 supply of electricity by a near-by hydro-electric power plant, and allows for three harvesting seasons per year.

The campus area is huge, has a large number of trees (including palm trees) and stretches along the Kabul River. It comprises office buildings, lecture halls, lab buildings, library building, student dormitories, a large (but still defunct) swimming pool, sports fields, a brand-new dormitory for female students, guesthouse, mensa etc.. Most of the buildings are old and some are still in bad shape - but there are excellent new buildings as well.

It is always surprising for me to find quite a number of professors at Afghan universities who speak (perfect) German: Chancellor Dr. Saber has earned his Ph.D. in Germany, an other colleague at the Faculty of Economics has completed his studies in business administration at the University of Cologne/Germany and then moved on to Vienna University of Economics and Business to do his Ph.D. there. Then there is the growing number of professors - like Mr. Naeem Jan Sarwary, the dean of the (emerging) Faculty of Business - who completed their master's studies at Ruhr-University Bochum/Germany - they speak English well and have some knowledge of the German language, too.

		The Languaguage Lab of the English Department is brand-new nad was a donation of the La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club. The seating is somewhat tight, but professors and students are excited to have first-class language learning facilities now.

The university library has got a good building, but new books and well-educated librarians are missing - and in urgend need.		There is no money available to by any scientific journals.

Probably European librariens are up for a challenge if the want set up a catalog system for the books available.		... but there is still some space for new books.

		On the left there is an excellent new building, which was donated by the Pakistani government. I was very surprised, when I had a look at the building again (I saw it eight months ago in a rather incomplete condition): The building is completed now and the university is waiting for the furniture to arrive.
The stairways are spacious and have marbel floors.		Above there is one of the lecture halls.

On the right is one of the rooms reserved for one of the computer labs. There might be the problem, that the marvelous view across the river valley of the Kabul River might impact the learning efforts of students.