Friday, September 14, 2001

Pakistan Plans Its First Virtual University By DANIEL DEL CASTILLO Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistan's Ministry of Science and Technology has announced plans to establish a virtual university here. The institution, which is to be called simply the Virtual University, will be the first of its kind in Pakistan when it opens next February. "The driving factor in the establishment of the Virtual University was the shortage of manpower for the IT sectors in Pakistan," said Naveed Malik, a professor of computer science at Punjab University, in Lahore, who is the main consultant and spokesman for the project. "Conventional universities can't support the demand for the high-tech sector, so that's why the government decided to establish a virtual university." Pakistan, like many developing countries in the region, has promoted IT degrees as tickets to success both inside and outside the country. Until the recent worldwide crash in the IT sector, highly trained Pakistani graduates had little difficulty finding well-paying high-tech jobs outside the country. Brainstorming for the project began a year ago, and the government gave its final approval this summer. "It's a major project at the national level," Mr. Malik said. "We expect to spend about $20-million during the first four years of the university's operation." The Virtual University will initially offer undergraduates degrees in computer science and other majors in the field of information technology. Within three years, however, plans are to begin a master's program in the same disciplines. "This is a new, custom-made university for Pakistanis," Mr. Malik said. "We are focused only on IT education; we are not worried about other disciplines." While the Virtual University will have headquarters in Islamabad, branch campuses are also to be established in each of Pakistan's five provinces to reach as many of the country's 130 million people as possible. The branch campuses will serve as access centers for Pakistanis who do not have private access to the Internet. When the university begins this winter, it will rely on televised courses. "Initially, it's a mix of models," Mr. Malik said. "Since we don't yet have a complete high-speed network, we are going toward broadcast, where we can cover 94 percent of the country." In the second year, video transmission will be phased out and replaced by high-speed computer-network connections. According to Mr. Malik, the university will be bilingual, with content in both English and Urdu, Pakistan's official language. Tutors from both the public and private sectors will supplement the 70 full-time faculty members within the university. Each tutor will have at least a master's degree in computer science, he said. "I don't think the Virtual University will ever replace traditional universities," Mr. Malik said. "But we are trying hard to emulate face-to-face learning -- at least in the IT sector." Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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