ISLAMABAD:Third Vice Chancellors and Consortium meeting of Higher Education Development Project (HEDP) for identification and selection of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) held at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) yesterday.
The purpose of meeting was to ensure access to high-quality education for students living in all especially remote disaster areas across the country.
The meeting was presided over by the Executive Director of Higher Education Commission (HEC), Dr. Shaista Sohail.
Project Coordinator of HEDP, Emeritus Prof, Dr. Mahmood Ul Hasan Butt and Vice Chancellor, AIOU, Prof. Dr. Nasir Mahmood hosted the consortium meeting.
Vice chancellors and senior officials of 11 universities of Pakistan participated in this meeting physically and online. The representatives of the World Bank also participated in the meeting.
Dr. Shaista Sohail shed light on the problems in higher education in Pakistan.
She said that during the covid-19, the need for online education arose and HEC gave instructions to universities to start online education.
She said that the focus of HEDP is on all the major areas of higher education in Pakistan and HEC will provide full support for the identification and selection of open online courses on a large scale.
Dr. Shaista Sohail thanked Allama Iqbal Open University for hosting the third session of Higher Education Development Project.
VC, AIOU, Prof. Dr. Nasir Mehmood and Emeritus Prof. Dr. Mahmood ul Hasan Butt, briefed all about the university’s digitalization and online method of Education, CMS and LMS portals, recording studios and OB vans equipped with modern technology.
They said that AIOU has shifted its administrative, financial, and educational affairs from manual to automation during the last four years and hundreds of students are benefiting from the facility of online classes daily.
Vice Chancellors of all universities and senior officials highlighted the online facilities of their respective universities and expressed their willingness to avail the services of the Higher Education Development Project.