ISLAMABAD, Aug 8: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has earmarked Rs30 million for computer networking and e-learning facilities at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), an official statement said.

The one-year project was approved in a meeting of Departmental Development Working Party of the commission, held at the HEC campus.

If implemented effectively, the project would be of immense importance as students ranging from class X to PhD would be benefiting from it.

The main objective of the project is to develop an infrastructure of e-offices in the AIOU, including local and wide area networks (LAN/WAN) implementation and customized database designing.

Through this project, the statement said, sophisticated software would also be developed to control and provide easy access to information and communication technology in different areas such as information management, students’ services, academic guidance services, internal communications, distance education, career guidance, record update etc.

The internet and intranet-e-mail would be used for inter- office communications. In addition to this, office automation will also be introduced by progressively replacing physical file system to computer-based file system.

The project will also facilitate university tutors and study centres to communicate online with the university through structured queries and forms. Online information desks will be developed through the project at various regions and departments for students and public.

A complete website of selected AIOU academic programmes in Pakistan will also be developed through the project. It will contain commonly required information for the citizen regarding admission policies, rules and regulation, scholarships, news and press releases, admissions, examination etc.

List of AIOU bookshops, publications and all services provided by the university to education partners will be advertised through this website.

The project will be beneficial to more than 300,000 students, 30,000 tutors and public at large.