February 4, 2006	Saturday	Muharram 5, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 3: Scores of young boys and girls aspiring for higher education mainly at foreign universities visited Dawn Group of Newspapers’ education expo organized at the Jinnah Convention Centre here on Friday.

Riding on last year’s success in Islamabad, this time the education expo has been organized with a lot more participation of international universities.

Representatives from universities of UK, USA, Malaysia, UAE, France, Australia and Egypt were present at 94 stalls and providing all kinds of information ranging from fee structure to visa processing.

To facilitate the students, a business centre was also set up at the venue with provisions of free photocopying and internet facilities. Students having laptops could also avail the facility of wireless internet arranged by Dawn.

The expo venue also had a presentation room, where universities made presentations on their programmes and the visa procedures a student has to undergo to enter a country.

Mohammad Usman, who had come to the town to visit the expo, has to wait for a day because the event was delayed due to the arrival of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

“I came here according to the initial announcement and have no other choice but to wait for a day,” said Mr Usman who had done BCS and wanted to go to the UK for higher education.

Any information a student needs for admission is available here without any hassle. Back in Lahore, one needs to pay some fee to a consultant for the information which is easily available here totally free of cost, he added.

Responding to a question, he said: “I am looking for some UK based universities because of their educational standards.”

Talking to Dawn, Abdul Basit, a representative of the local Virtual University (VU), the only distance learning university at the expo, expressed satisfaction over the response from students.

“Though VU is a distance learning university even then we are receiving a good number of applicants including teachers and working women,” Mr Basit said.

The VU is the only distance learning university for e- learning in the South Asia with its own TV satellites, he claimed.

The expo will continue till 7pm on Saturday.