February 5, 2006	Sunday	Muharram 6, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 4: The two-day education exhibition organized by the Dawn Group of Newspapers, ended here on Saturday after facilitating thousands of students who wished to study in the education institutions of Britain, the United States, Malaysia, the UAE, France, Australia and Egypt.

The exhibition has now moved to Lahore where it will be held on Feb 6-7.

“We need such exhibitions to guide us to make correct choices for our children seeking education abroad. We want our children to study at reputable institutions of the first world and we are happy that this expo is guiding us in our pursuit,” said Ms Ayesha Minhas a mother of three.

Her daughter, who was planning to get admission to a medical college in the UK, collected admission forms of six such colleges at the exhibition. Ms Minhas said she was so impressed with the facility that she has advised her cousins in Lahore to visit the expo when it moves there.

“I don’t want them to miss the opportunity,” she said.

In fact the success of the education expo held in Islamabad last year attracted several more international universities to participate in this year’s expo.

Entry to the expo and counselling by the participating universities and colleges were free. All kinds of information, ranging from fee structure to visa processing, were provided at the 94 stalls set up at the expo, some by local institutions too.

“I am clear in my mind now what I am required to do to get an admission offer and a visa from the US embassy,” said Asim Ali, who filled the admission forms of a US university. Mr Ali wanted to do his Masters in Media Studies.

Before coming to the expo, he said, he had thought getting a student visa would be impossible. “But now I am very confident of that,” he said.

A business centre set up at the expo to provide free internet and photocopying facilities was much appreciated by students and parents. Students who brought their own laptops could connect to wireless internet facility which Dawn had arranged for the area.

A presentation room, where universities made presentations about their programmes and the visa procedures remained a much occupied place throughout the day.

“People are really serious in pursuing studies abroad. What they need is proper information, which they are getting here,” Mumtaz Hussain, a graduate from a Pakistani university, said.

Stalls of Pakistani universities, including the Virtual University and National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, also attracted a large number of students.

A similar exhibition was held at the Expo Centre in Karachi on January 30-31.