Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) will host the Asian Association Open Universities’ (AAOU) annual conference 2013 to strengthen regional cooperation to fight illiteracy and ensure quality education through distance-learning and e-learning systems.
The preparations for this purpose are already underway” this was stated by Prof Dr Nazir Ahmed Sangi while addressing the 25th meeting of Board of Advanced Studies and Research (BASR).
Dr Sangi further said AIOU will promote research work at the higher educational level that helps to solve the community-based problems and the national issues, like energy crisis, illiteracy and unemployment.
The students of the universities while doing research work must concentrate on the socio-economic problems, faced by the country. They should be a helping hand to the government and other relevant institutions to solve the issues of the national importance. There is also need of bringing about necessary amendments in the on-going research methods that could meet contemporary needs. “We must promote productive and creative research works at the universities’ level so that it could be beneficial for formulating policies of public importance”, he asserted.
He said the students should work hard to raise the standard of their research journals so as to enhance their utility and application at the community-level. The Board’s meeting was attended, among others by the deans of the four faculties- Education, Social Sciences, Basic Sciences, and Arabic and Islamic studies, besides AIOU Registrar Agha Hafizullah and Director BASR Directorate Dr Hamid Khan Niazi.
More than 60 research papers/proposals of MPhil and PhD level offered by the AIOU’s faculties were presented at the Board’s meeting for consideration.
Majority of them were approved after necessary changes. A list of supervisors/experts/examiners was also presented by the different departments for the approval of the board.
Meanwhile, Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) Muzaffarabad Regional Campus started functioning in its new building that will facilitate around 50,000 students of the area.
The building costing about Rs 50 million is equipped with latest `state-of-the-art’ facilities. It was formally inaugurated on Wednesday by the Vice Chancellor.
While inaugurating the new campus building, he said that it has been set up to ensure equal quality education for all in all parts of the country. The new campuses and study centers were being set up at the provincial and district levels to provide educational facilities to the students at their door-steps.
Access of quality education for the students has been the top priority of the University. Efforts are also been made for the availability of the basic infrastructural support as well as e-learning system in every nook and corner of the country, specially in the backward and neglected regions, he added.
The AIOU, Dr Nazir Ahmed Sangi added has made a remarkable progress in the last two years in enhancing its educational network with maximum students’ supporting facilities.
The students’ enrolment has now reached to 1.3 millions and these numbers are getting increased in each semester of various AIOU’ programmes. Prof Dr Nazir Ahmed Sangi also highlighted the efforts being made by the University in introducing new job-oriented and vocational based programmes that he added are aimed at enhancing their participation in socio-economic development of the country.
