PESHAWAR, Jan 20: The NWFP Governor, Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, has said that the government was considering shifting the main campus of the NWFP University of Engineering and Technology from Peshawar to its newly-established campus at Mardan.

Speaking at a function held to mark the start of the first academic session of the university at its Mardan campus on Monday, the governor also asked the District Nazim, Haji Raza Khan, to extend full cooperation in this connection.

He said that the basic aim of the proposal was to provide a comparatively better and spacious place for the engineering university students.

He said in view of the expanding faculties of the Peshawar University, the shifting of the engineering university to Jalozai had been on the cards since long and a piece of land had also been purchased at a cost of about Rs40 million. However, no progress was made towards its construction as billions of rupees were required to provide minimum level of infrastructure facilities at that place.

Talking about the standard of education, the governor said that the new faculties must focus on the main disciplines of engineering and technology.

He stressed the need for providing fully-equipped library and laboratory facilities which showed the quality of education being imparted to the students. In fact, he said, the required education and training must be of practical nature, which was highly important for the overall progress of the country.

The governor also highlighted the importance of the promotion of research activities and said: “We must not only be target-oriented but should also be very much clear about local demands and sustainability of the projects.”

In this respect, he mentioned the role of agriculture and industrial sectors in the economic development and said revolutionary changes could be witnessed in a number of countries which experienced unprecedented progress in a short span of time.

However, the governor expressed concern over the newly emerged phenomena of self-finance, and said that while it had some positive aspects, a number of negative points were also being pointed out by some people.

He said unlike primary and secondary education, the higher education could not be considered a birth right of every individual and it should be available to only those who fulfil the given criterion.

He welcomed the engineering university’s practice of awarding about 550 scholarships annually and stressed that efforts should continue to enhance both the amount and the number of scholarships.