Karakoram International University Karakoram International University Karakoram International University or Karakoram University (KIU; ) is an international level university in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. It was established in 2002 with a charter from the Federal Government of Pakistan, with the goal of improving access to higher education for the deserved people of Gilgit-Baltistan. There are two faculties - Sciences, and Humanities and Social Sciences. A third faculty of Mountain Area Development Studies is still in the planning stage. The KIU has been chartered as a multi-campus institution, The campus, situated on University Road in Gilgit, is well-constructed; however, Skardu Campus was established in 2011 with
Karakoram and Pamir mountains have been nominated for inclusion in UNESCO in 2010 by the National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO and has tentatively been added to the list. Karakoram is a Turkic term meaning "black gravel". The Central Asian traders originally applied the name to the Karakoram Pass. Early European travellers, including William Moorcroft and George Hayward, started using the term for the range of mountains west of the pass, although they also used the term Muztagh (meaning, "Ice Mountain") for the range now known as Karakoram. Later terminology was influenced by the Survey of India,