Universities required focusing on skill development & IT: President Alvi

ISLAMABAD, Feb 01 (SABAH): President Dr. Arif Alvi has directed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to chalk out a plan for the implementation of the Online Distance Learning (ODL) policy at the earliest. Underlining the importance of virtual education, President Dr. Arif Alvi 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.

President Dr. Arif Alvi made these remarks during a briefing on the National University of Technology (NUTECH), Islamabad, at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by the faculty members of NUTECH, representatives of HEC, and senior officials of the Government.

Rector of the University, 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. The Rector 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.

Addressing the meeting, the President stated that 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 emphasised the need for promoting international skills collaborations with foreign universities and training institutes which would greatly help in the learning and professional development of our workforce.