TAXILA, Jan 17: Punjab government plans setting up of sub-campuses of major universities in major districts and cities of the province.

In this connection a sub-campus of the University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, would be established at Chakwal and electrical and mechanical engineering classes would be commenced this year.

This was stated by the Punjab Governor, Lt-Gen (retired) Khalid Maqbool while speaking at the fourth convocation of the University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, and attending a briefing here on Monday.

The governor, while attending a briefing given by Vice Chancellor Habibullah Jamal and Chakwal District Nazim about establishment of sub-campus at Chakwal, was informed that the sub-campus would be established at a temporary building and classes in mechanical and electrical engineering would commence this year.

The Punjab government would spend Rs40 million on the building, provision of basic requirements, including establishment of mini-labs in the sub-campus. The governor directed the vice-chancellor to establish interactive voice conferencing facility between two campuses and appoint separate faculty members.

He also directed the varsity administration to give admissions to students from all four provinces on merit to the new sub-campus. The campuses of the Punjab University, the governor said, would also be established at Gujarnwala and Agriculture University, Faisalabad, sub-campus and research centre at Toba Tek Singh.

Similarly Bahauddin Zakaria University, Bahawalpur, sub-campus would be established at Rahim Yar Khan. The governor, who is also chancellor of the UET Taxila, said the Higher Education Commission had provided Rs138 million to the university during the current fiscal year and the Punjab government had also provided Rs74 million for its expansion.

Besides, Pakistan Science Foundation is also funding research projects in the university. He said the government had been according importance to education in the province.

The governor, who is also chancellor of the university, said the government had chalked out a comprehensive plan to improve educational infrastructure in the province and meeting the faculty shortage besides improving their teaching skills.

He said Rs1 billion would be utilized through Education Foundation, with the cooperation of private sector for providing quality education and to enhancing the literacy rate in the province, especially in far-flung area.

He said our universities still lack quality and our education system had made little impact on our economy and society. He said during the last five years the number of pubic sector universities in Punjab had increased from eight to 16 and the total allocation to the universities had increased from Rs1.725 billion to Rs6.98 billion.

He said the Punjab government had doubled the enrolment, foreign faculty hiring, increased the PhD scholarships from less than Rs1 million to Rs8 million and created linkages between the universities.

Governor Maqbool said for the first time in the history of the province a massive allocation of Rs43 billion had been made for education sector out of which some Rs21 billion would be spent on the infrastructure uplift.

He said 63,117 schools were functioning in which nine million students were studying in the province. Governor Maqbool said 16,000 teachers had been recruited in schools and 2,500 lecturers would be inducted in colleges soon.

He urged the faculty members that whatever their disciplines may be they should understand financial and social aspects of the engineering as "engineers no longer work in isolation".

The governor stressed the need for improving the quality of education at colleges and universities so that the graduates could get job in public and private sector organizations.

The governor said, there existed vast opportunities of higher learning as well as job in every field and everywhere but through competition and on merit. The globalization, he added, had further expanded the canvas of competition and only those individuals could stay in reckoning who have genuine spirit and passion for learning, mustering of new concepts and advanced technologies.

He said the dream of a prosperous and viable democratic Pakistan could not be achieved without the attainment of 100 per cent literacy rate. The world today is in the midst of a technological explosion, he remarked and added "we the nations that have developed and progressed have continuously adjusted themselves with technology, innovations and changing values. Illiterate nations and those who fail to keep abreast of changing knowledge cannot progress", he added.

He expressed his desire to develop institutionalized mechanism to bring a revolutionary change in teaching and research methodology and to further strengthen links between the institutions and agencies both domestic and abroad.

He also congratulated students for bagging gold medals, showing remarkable progress. The governor also attended a free interactive conference with the fresh graduate engineers and attended the ground breaking ceremony of a library building.