Varsities’ IT courses re-designed | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Varsities’ IT courses re-designed

SWABI, Aug 8: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has revamped its courses for information technology and improved facilities at universities according to new emerging needs of the country.

Addressing the students participating in the first National Physics Talent Contest at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology on Wednesday, Dr Sohail Naqvi, the HEC executive director, said the commission was working systematically to strengthen public sector engineering universities across the country.

Facilities, including laboratories were being provided at the institutions to bring about a result-oriented change in the higher education system, he said.

The executive director said the faculty had to play an important role in achieving the objectives of providing quality education, adding that 40 per cent of the HEC fund had been allocated for teaching.

“Quality education costs money,” he said. “We want to impart quality education to students according to requirements of the country.”

Mr Naqvi said the medical and engineering varsities were being strengthened but regretted that social sciences field was lagging far behind.

He said the commission would take steps to improve this field.

The executive director said a large of students lacked English language proficiency and for this purpose English courses had been included in the engineering syllabus.

Mr Naqvi informed students how the HEC was formed, what it had achieved and what it was planning for the future.

He said: “Engineering universities were on decline when the HEC was founded but now all these institutions impart quality education to the youth.”

The executive director was surprised to know that no students hailing from the NWFP or Balochistan had qualified for the contest.

The rector of the GIK Institute Dr Abdullah Sadiq said the contest was part of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics career project, a joint venture of the HEC and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.
Source: Dawn
Date:8/9/2007