European partners help create Pakistan's Virtual University

Brussels, 12 August 2002

Academic institutions in the UK and Denmark are collaborating with Pakistani counterparts under the ASIA IT&C scheme to help create the Pakistan Virtual University (PVU). The project aims to bring together institutions and organisations with knowledge of eLearning in higher education, vocational learning and lifelong learning to share information and experience, and add to the provision of the PVU.

The Virtual University is one of the highest priority projects of Pakistan's Ministry of science and technology, which intends to exploit information technology's potential as a key contributor to the country's socio-economic development. It hopes to contribute to the development of human resources in the field and make Pakistan an important player in the IT industry.

The project brought together the University of Central Lancashire (UK), Selandia College (Denmark), Burnley Telematics (UK) and CIIT, COMSATS institute of Information Technology in Pakistan to deliver e-Learning via the Internet and television.

Ejaz Hussain of Burnley Telematics, a community-based UK company that has already educated Pakistani men and women, visited Pakistan as part of the collaboration. He said: 'I reported back to the partners on issues as diverse as Pakistani culture and infrastructure that enabled the project to effectively help the Virtual University with quality assurance and content development.'

The project website (see below) is designed to enable individuals and organisations to contribute news features and submit useful journal references concerning all aspects of eLearning. This network will enable the knowledge gained through this collaboration to be promoted to researchers and institutions interested in eLearning.

For further information, please consult the following web address: http://www.uclan.ac.uk/pvu

CORDIS RTD-NEWS/© European Communities, 2001