20 January 2004	Tuesday	27 Ziqa'ad 1424

ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has started preparation of a new curriculum of Telecommunication Engineering for graduate and post-graduate level in the public sector universities.

In this regard, a three-day preliminary meeting of HEC's National Curriculum Review Committee (NCRC) started here on Saturday to discuss preparation of the curriculum, an official statement said.

The committee suggested that the curriculum should be made flexible so that it can easily be adopted by the universities. It was also pointed out that consideration should be given to general education, communication, presentation and management skills along with the technical requirements.

The NCRC suggested that the title of the degree in telecommunication should be BSc/BS/BE/Telecommunication Engineering. The minimum number of study weeks per academic year should be at least 32.

It was also suggested that practical/lab work should comprise sufficient part of the total credit hours in all the subjects of practical nature. All the universities/institutions should make arrangements for practical training of their students in industrial organizations during summer vacations, especially in the third year/final year.

The students should be evaluated during the session through tests, quizzes, assignments and case studies, followed by a comprehensive examination at the end of the year/term/semester.

The meeting also called for spreading evaluation process uniformly over the complete semester. Efforts should be made to provide appropriate and latest equipment for the laboratories of the teaching departments, it suggested.

It also proposed that the HEC might provide funds/facilities for the establishment of departmental libraries, which would stock books related to particular subjects.

Special emphasis should be given to the provision of research journals. For this purpose, the departments should be provided with internet connection to access literature available in digital form at major library services in Pakistan and abroad.

Industrial training of engineering students is highly desirable and efforts should be made to provide training to all students, the committee suggested. In order to create adequate training opportunities, the HEC may take up the matter with the government to enforce legislation, making it mandatory for industry to provide training to engineering students in proportion to their capital investment and/or number of engineers employed. For legislation purpose, guidance may be obtained from the Apprenticeship Act 1984, and the practice in the neighbouring countries.