By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi Tuesday directed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to chalk out an implementation plan over the Online Distance Learning (ODL) policy at the earliest.
Underlining the importance of virtual education, the president said that universities should increase the component of virtual education, so that a maximum number of students could benefit from the cheaper mode of learning. The president made these remarks during a briefing on the National University of Technology (NUTECH), Islamabad, at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.
The meeting was attended by the faculty members of NUTECH, representatives of HEC, and senior government officials.
Addressing the meeting, the president said the universities were required to focus on skill development and IT to overcome the technological gap and put the country on the fast track of development.
He further emphasised upon the need for promoting international skills in collaboration with the foreign universities and training institutes which would greatly help in the learning and professional development of the country’s workforce.
Rector Lt. Gen. (retd) Khalid Asghar briefed the meeting about the academic programmes being offered by NUTECH in various engineering fields.
It was informed that NUTECH had planned to offer programmes in Artificial Intelligence, robotics, and other fields of engineering and IT.
He highlighted that the university was focusing on providing high-quality technical education and marketable skills enabling the youth of the country to get employment.
He also briefed the meeting about the future plans and development of the online education support system at NUTECH.
