PRESIDENT ALVI DESIRES ENHANCEMENT OF IIUI’S ONLINE, PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE TO INCREASE STUDENTS
ISLAMABAD ( Web News )
Prof. Dr. Masoom Yasinzai, Rector, International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) called on Dr. Arif Alvi, the President of Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Chancellor, IIUI at Aiwan e Sadr on Wednesday for a follow up briefing on the International Islamic University, Islamabad.
The meeting was also attended by Prof. Dr. N. B. Jumani, Vice-President (A&F); Prof. Dr. Ahmed Shuja Syed, Vice-President (R&E); Dr. Ali Metab Alahmari, Director (President Office), IIUI. Director (President Office); Mr. Muhammad Farooq, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Islamabad; Mr. Waqar Ahmad, Additional Secretary (Admin), President’s Secretariat (Public), Islamabad; Mr. Nazeer Hussain, Director General, Higher Education Commission, Islamabad; Mr. Sohail Akhtar Malik, Director General , Administration, President’s Secretariat (Public) , Mr. Saqib Rashid, Deputy Director, IIU and Mr. Al-Hassan, Assistant Director, IIU.
Addressing the meeting, President Dr Arif Alvi desired that the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) should further enhance its online and physical educational infrastructure to increase the number of quality students. He also advised to double the educational shifts in the University and come up with a proposal within three months in this regard. The president of Pakistan said that the university needed to equip its students with soft skills, such as critical thinking, effective communication and teamwork, besides providing technical/hard skills. The president appreciated the performance and role of the university in promoting quality education in the country and assured the management of his support in this regard.
He urged the university to include experts from the market in its statutory bodies (Board of Trustees, Board of Governors) besides developing collaborations with the industry to equip its students with marketable skills. H.E. President Alvi also emphasised the need to launch two-year Associate Degree Programs in order to fulfill the market’s growing demand for skilled graduates.
The President of Pakistan asked to develop and strengthen online mode of learning by opting online learning resources with the help of HEC to provide updated learning facilities to the faculty and students. Underscoring the increasing importance of online education, the President said that online contents of the knowledge needed to be enhanced as distance learning is cost-effective and easily accessible and duly recognized worldwide.
President of Pakistan/Chancellor, IIU hoped that university will further progress to materialize the IIU’s Strategic Plan (2022-26) as per Target Priority Areas set therein through a variety of sub-goals, strategies and key performance indicators to meet the challenges and to make the difference. It was underlined that the new Strategic Plan would contribute to the socio-economic and technological environment of the country, besides bringing good governance to the institution.
On the occasion, the President of Pakistan/Chancellor, IIUI was apprised about IIUI’s academic activities, strategic plan and development projects and future goals. The President of Pakistan/Chancellor, IIUI was briefed on the efforts of the University towards depoliticization of the students wings on the university campus, university’s structural and scientific reforms that led to improvement in the rankings of the university. The President of Pakistan was also briefed about the administrative reforms initiated at the university such as provision of the peaceful milieu for students and surety of accountability, while he was also apprised on enhanced resource optimization and efforts of digitization. The IIUI Chancellor also desired that follow-up meetings on the discussed aforesaid initiatives must be held in future for the effective impact on the performance of the university.
The Chancellor, IIUI also noted the initiatives of the University on “Online Education System/projects for Open and Distance Learning (ODL)” to improve the possibility of online education to existing students and to future students of the degrees of BS, MS, and PhD and short courses with larger access. He opined that the idea for online distance learning (ODL) needs to be enhanced by creating desirable infrastructure to take best advantage of the technology-enabled education to meaningfully contribute to the national economy and creating the societal impact, while keeping the market drive and input and need in view.
The President of Pakistan/Chancellor IIUI was also briefed about initiatives taken by the University to strategically “redo/restructure/revamp” almost all academic programs in accordance with the market drive, need assessment and market input whereby he advised to keep an active liaison with the corporate advisory groups to produce quality human resource to meet the market demand and urged that HEC and Universities should come up with a proposal to develop and strengthen linkages between industry and academia in this regard. The matters regarding preparation and approval of Strategic Plan 2022-2026, phenomenal improvement in IIUI’s international ranking and efforts to depoliticize the campus also came under discussion, which were appreciated with the advice that a peaceful academic environment be maintained through regular and associate degree programs offered by the university. He also urged the HEC to communicate with universities for launching associate degree programs.
The meeting was also briefed about the new initiatives such as Directorate of Graduates Studies, Directorate of University Advancement and Promotion, Directorate of Research and Enterprises, and the Office of Linkages those were duly appreciated by the chair.