ISLAMABAD, May 28: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has said it will spend Rs36 million to upgrade and provide internet connectivity between various campuses of the Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) using Pakistan Educational and Research Network (PERN) fibre optic backbone.

A press release issued here said under the project CIIT would provide online services through a centralized web portal for all its campuses and maintain a web portal for online dissemination of information on academic programmes, research activities, departmental information, faculty information and admissions, etc.

The CIIT will also develop centralized databases for admission, examination and accounts, etc., of the institutes and install video-conferencing equipment on all campuses besides making one video lecture room at every site.

All the five campuses of the CIIT located at Islamabad, Lahore, Abbottabad, Attock and Wah will be brought at a central point for information on university education. This will facilitate students, teachers and the public in their initiatives at different levels.

Under the proposed project, the existing facilities of the CIIT would be upgraded and extended to all campuses. The access switches would be connected to the core switch via Giga bit link.

This would include provision of internet connection to all the faculty members, students and other academic staff. A maximum number of students would be provided access to the internet by providing computer labs to each of the departments.