Founded in 1913, Lahore-based KCW claims to be "South Asia’s premier women’s institution".
It also refers to itself as “More than a college: a community enriched by the spirit of inquiry that kindles in the student.”
At its foundation, it was the only liberal arts college for women in pre-Partition Punjab. Now in Pakistan, it occupies the campus to which it moved in 1926, and which by 1939 had grown to more than 20 acres. It has distinctive period buildings and numerous trees, including the famed “Big Tree" at its centre.
It aims to be "A centre of excellence for the education of women, offering academic programmes of international standards and engaging in research and service that supports the development of new knowledge, ideas and social responsibility. This is in recognition and continuation of the reputation the College has of being the most prominent and prestigious institute for women in Pakistan.”
Its 3,300 students are educated across faculties of applied science and business studies; art, design and media studies; biological and life sciences; language, literature and education; physics and earth sciences; and social science and law. New courses include a master’s degrees in accounting and finance, and a master’s degree in English literature.
In order to graduate, students must take part in the Active Citizenship programme initiated in 2015. Other recent developments include the International Centre for Pakistani Writing in English, set up in 2014, and the college archive centre, set up in 2016 and now home to 28,000 images recording the history of the college.
