KARACHI, June 14: The Sindh Governor, Dr Ishratul Ibad, has said that professionally competent and globally compatible manpower was needed to efficiently handle the challenges that lay ahead of the nation, for rapid economic development of the country.

He was speaking as the chief guest at a ceremony held for distribution of laptops amongst the students of Bahria University on Wednesday.

The governor emphasised that universities all over the country were required to bring in innovations in the overall structure of their degree programmes, and should review their curriculum regularly and upgrade it to incorporate emerging global trends.

He pointed out that collaboration with varsities and industries, both local and international, was the basic need to remain abreast with emerging patterns influencing globalization.

“Access to latest information, sharing of resources and knowledge exposure to international quality standards are some of the areas which a university should focus on for its development.”

He appreciated the Pakistan Navy for its contribution to vital areas of promoting quality education and human resource development.

He suggested the Bahria University to take up its expansion plans more aggressively, introduce market place disciplines, and open up more campuses to increase enrolment of students.

He assured that his office would provide them full support for all such initiatives that they took and that were needed in the process of nation building.

The governor described it an honour for him to witness an impressive ceremony which marked the beginning of a new era of collaboration between bank, industry and university.

He was confident that this initiative of the Bahria University would help students own latest laptop computers at a very affordable cost, payable in easy instalments, besides providing them with a state-of-the-art gadget which, in fact, was the need of every student to cope with the global learning requirement.

He also thanked and appreciated the top management of the Bank of Punjab, Acer and Intel for the good gestures and cooperation they had extended to the Bahria University.

He was confident that the MoUs, which had been signed between the varsity and these organisations, would contribute tremendously to boost the learning abilities of students at the varsity, making it a model for other institutions to follow.

Earlier, the varsity’s Rector, Vice-Admiral Farooq Rashid, lauded Governor Ishratul Ibad for his commitment to the cause of education and his continuous efforts for the welfare of people of the province.

On the occasion, Dr Shakeel Ahmed Khoja was conferred the ‘Best Teacher Award’.—APP