The Government of Pakistan grants AKU more than 63 acres on Stadium Road on what is then the outskirts of Karachi. The decision will look increasingly prescient as AKU develops into one of the country’s most trusted institutions of higher education and health care.​

AKU’s foundation stone is laid. Award-winning, Boston-based architecture firm Payette is engaged to design the AKU campus. They are charged with bringing modernist restraint and the Islamic design heritage into a productive dialogue. Payette’s first step, at His Highness’s insistence, is to undertake an extensive tour of architectural landmarks throughout the Muslim world.​

Following a period of political uncertainty and economic turmoil in Pakistan that sees inflation reach 25 percent, construction commences on Stadium Road. Years of planning and preparation give way to a flurry of activity. The campus becomes a magnet for talent, materials and equipment from across the country and around the world. ​

The School of Nursing is inaugurated, giving Pakistan its first university-based nursing school. Its mission: to enhance the prestige and practice of the nursing profession, thereby creating rewarding professional opportunities for women and improving health care for the country’s people. In his inaugural speech, the Chancellor directly addresses the School’s first class of students, memorably articulating what is at stake.​

On March 16, 1983, AKU receives its Charter from the Government of Pakistan, thereby becoming the country’s first private university. This date marks the University’s inception. In a landmark speech, His Highness sets forth AKU’s founding vision. ​

The Aga Khan University Hospital opens its doors. Over the next 38 years, it will repeatedly raise standards and bring new medical treatments and technologies to the country as it grows from 195 to 737 beds. With the Hospital complete, the campus is revealed in its full glory. The New York Times will later call it “a breathtakingly beautiful place” and “an oasis in a hectic city.”​

The Patient Welfare Programme is launched. When patients cannot afford the cost of care, the Programme helps them to pay their bill. As of 2023, more than $275 million in assistance has been provided. Qualifying patients can receive support not only from the welfare programme but from the Patients’ Behbud Society for AKUH, which distributes zakat. Together, the two programmes can cover up to 100% of the cost of care for the lowest-income patients, enabling them to receive surgeries and other complex care.

The Medical College’s first class completes its studies. Its members will soon prove that an AKU education prepares alumni to compete and collaborate with graduates of the world’s best-known universities. The same year sees the School of Nursing launch Pakistan’s first Post-RN Bachelor of Science in Nursing programme. Thirty years later, 80% of Pakistan’s officially recognized nursing degree programmes will have AKU alumni in leadership positions. ​

AKU celebrates its 10th anniversary as a still-fledgling institution that has nonetheless achieved a national reputation and influence.

In its first venture beyond the health sciences, the University launches the Institute for Educational Development. Its mission: to enhance the quality of primary and secondary education and the status of the teaching profession in Pakistan. Over the next two decades, it will educate and train more than 30,000 teachers.

The Chancellor’s Commission issues its 135-page report, The Future of the Aga Khan University: Evolution of a Vision. The work of eminent leaders from academia, business, government and non-governmental organizations in five countries, its insights and recommendations help shape AKU’s evolution over the next quarter-century. ​

After a nearly 10-year pause, construction returns to Stadium Road. The Rufayda al-Aslamiya Building and the Hadi Building open in 1996. By the end of the decade, they will be joined by the Juma Building, the Ibn Ridwan Building and the Sports and Rehabilitation Centre. Among other things, they will give Pakistan its first Bio-Safety Level III laboratory. ​

AKU’s Urban Health Programme demonstrates success, as the infant mortality rate declines by 40% in the low-income neighborhoods of Karachi it serves. It is among the first of many such projects that AKU will undertake on its way to earning a global reputation for its maternal and child health research. ​

In the most momentous milestone since the receipt of its Charter, AKU commences operations in East Africa. By 2007, it will be educating nurses, physicians and teachers in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It will also be operating the Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi. As of 2023, one-third of AKU’s students and more than one-quarter of its patients are in East Africa.

Contributions by individual donors to the University cross the $200 million mark. Such extraordinary generosity makes it possible for AKU to care for low-income patients, fund scholarships for talented students, build new facilities, purchase new technologies and more.

The Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations is established in London. Its mission: to bring, through education, scholarship and outreach, a better understanding of Islam and its diversity, of the complexity and evolution of Muslim cultures, and of the challenges facing Muslim societies, for the benefit of Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It soon becomes home to an international group of scholars working on everything from governance in Muslim societies to computer-assisted analysis of pre-modern Arabic texts.

AKU celebrates its 20th anniversary as a newly international, diversifying institution on the cusp of the most rapid growth in its history. ​

The AKU Examination Board is established to provide affordable, high-quality school-leaving examinations for secondary students. The first private examination board in Pakistan, its tests require critical thinking rather than rote learning, and its electronic marking system prevents the cheating that has marred standardized testing in the country. Today, more than 13,000 students are enrolled in schools affiliated with AKU-EB, and 90% of their graduates earn university admission.

A wave of new building in Karachi gets underway with the inauguration of the Nazerali-Walji Building, Khimji Building and Karimi, Noor and Arman Rupani Residences. By the end of the decade, they will be joined by the Soparivala Building, Ibn Zuhr Building and Aziz T. Valimohammed Building. The new facilities benefit heart, cancer, obstetric and day patients; female faculty and staff; and the clinical laboratory.

It’s the end of an era as President Shamsh Kassim-Lakha steps down after three decades of immensely consequential service. He is succeeded by President Firoz Rasul. A technology company CEO, President of the Aga Khan Council for Canada, and member of the University of British Columbia’s Board of Governors, he will lead AKU for the next 15 years. ​

In the culmination of years of preparation, the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi becomes the first hospital in Pakistan to meet the quality and patient safety standards necessary for accreditation by the US-based Joint Commission International. Here is objective confirmation that AKU is fulfilling its founder’s goal of achieving “the highest standards possible.”​

With Afghanistan’s health sector in tatters following decades of conflict, the French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children is established in Kabul as a partnership of AKU, the French non-governmental organization La Chaîne de l’Espoir and the governments of France and Afghanistan. It will grow to 169 beds, launch residency training in nine specialties and become Afghanistan’s leading maternal and child hospital.

After devastating flooding affects one-fifth of Pakistan’s land area, AKU provides care to 1.3 million people in Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan over the course of more than a year. The scale of the effort offers further evidence that AKU is a national asset for Pakistan.

In Nairobi, the $50 million Heart and Cancer Centre opens in the Jimmy Sayani Building. The University’s first major construction project in East Africa, it brings a new level of cardiac and oncology care to East Africa. By 2023, nine more facilities will be constructed in Pakistan, Afghanistan, East Africa and the United Kingdom.​

AKU opens its 200th outreach health centre in Pakistan, bringing access to laboratory testing and other services to 88 cities across the country. Meanwhile, it opens its 15th outreach centre in East Africa. The centres join a health network that includes seven hospitals in three countries. ​

The University graduates its 10,000th student. Today, AKU alumni can be found in leadership positions in locally renowned institutions, world-famous universities and hospitals, and throughout AKU itself. Influential clinicians, researchers, innovators, educators, policymakers and authors, they are the University’s foremost ambassadors.

AKU marks its 30th anniversary, having evolved from a single-country, single-hospital, health-focused institution into a continent-spanning enterprise active in multiple academic disciplines.

The Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi becomes the first hospital in East Africa to meet the quality and patient safety standards necessary for accreditation by the US-based Joint Commission International. Clearly, the University’s commitment to excellence is not limited by national borders. ​

The Graduate School of Media and Communications launches in Nairobi, giving AKU its fifth programme outside the health sciences. Its mission: to foster an independent, innovative, ethical and economically thriving media and communications sector. It will soon provide short-course training to more than 2,000 journalists and launch master’s degrees for journalists and media leaders. ​

Confirming that boldness is part of its DNA, the University establishes the Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. Its goal: to contribute to one of the most exciting fields in medical research, and to ensure that the societies AKU serves have access to the latest diagnostics and treatments. It soon undertakes cutting-edge research in cancer, gene-editing and other fields.

AKU graduates its 10,000th woman. Then as now, two-thirds of its students, and half of its faculty members, are women.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents AKU with the most formidable challenge in its history. It is a test the University will pass thanks to the courage and determination of its faculty and staff, the adaptability of its students and the generosity of its supporters. AKU provides life-saving care to thousands of severely ill COVID-19 patients, vaccinates tens of thousands, tests hundreds of thousands, ensures continuity of education for its students and provides crucial expertise to policymakers. In the process, it demonstrates its value like never before. ​

With the University having made immense strides since he took over a decade and a half prior, President Firoz Rasul retires. Sulaiman Shahabuddin becomes the University’s third president. He brings to his new role his experience as CEO of the Aga Khan Health Services in East Africa and the 15 years he spent at AKU in Karachi earlier in his career.

U.S. News & World Report ranks AKU among the top 500 universities in the world, the top 100 universities in Asia and the top 30 universities globally in public, environmental and occupational health. Meanwhile, ShanghaiRanking places AKU among the top 75 universities globally in public health and the top 150 universities globally in clinical medicine. As its 40th birthday nears, the University is hitting its stride and earning recognition on the world stage.

AKU receives nearly $90 million in external research grants in 2021 – an all-time high, and 10 times the amount received in 2011. In the same year, faculty publish more than 1,300 articles in peer-reviewed journals – another all-time high and almost double the number published in 2015. Research is blossoming, and major universities in Europe and North America are increasingly eager to partner with AKU.

Emerging undaunted from the pandemic, the University completes construction on landmark building projects in both Karachi and Nairobi. The University Centre, Karachi gives the soon-to-be-launched Faculty of Arts and Sciences a home. Meanwhile, the University Centre, Nairobi is AKU’s new campus in Kenya. It is inaugurated with President Uhuru Kenyatta in attendance, at a ceremony that also sees the University receive its Kenyan Charter from the Government. ​

Ground is broken on AKU’s new campus in Kampala, solidifying the University’s commitment to Uganda and further expanding its presence in East Africa. As in Pakistan decades prior, the Government of Uganda has provided the University a choice parcel of land, believing in its capacity to bring high-quality health care and education to the country. ​

Record-setting monsoon rains lead to unprecedented flooding in Pakistan. With millions affected, the University rushes to establish medical camps across the country. It provides basic health care to more than 400,000 people in flood-affected communities.

AKU rings in its 40th anniversary, proud of the difference it has made in millions of lives. A testament to the power of pluralism, it stands capable of achieving the highest standards, committed to serving the most disadvantaged, able to deliver cutting-edge research and innovation and confident that it can overcome challenges and crises of all kinds. Once a bold vision, it is now a persuasive reality.