ISLAMABAD, Dec 5: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has connected universities on the Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN) for interactive video conferencing on health with 14 countries’ major universities including Johns Hopkins and University of Columbia.

By participation in the mega global conference on health, Pakistan formally joined a high speed network linking it to over 200 top research institutions of the US.

It will directly facilitate researchers to gain access to high quality research material and even participate in collaborative experiments.

The first ever event to be telecast via video conferencing titled ‘Global forum on road trauma’ included live interactions by professors at the University of Toronto, World Bank, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, University of Vienna Medical School, Peking University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, India Institute of Technology, New Delhi, and McCormick Centre, Chicago. The lecture was available at HEC video conferencing room and the HEJ Institute of Science and Technology while University of Health Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University and King Edward Medical College University interacted with professors across the world.

Prior to the international link-up, Dr Sohail H. Naqvi of the HEC described the commission’s technological infrastructure programme.

PERN, he said, included computerisation and networking of HEC while the same facility has been given to all public sector universities as well as extensive central computer laboratories.

Dr Naqvi said the newest initiative HEC was working on was the provision of laptops to faculty members and students which would eventually lead to computing to the home.

On December 6, there will be live telecast of ‘arthroscopic shoulder surgery’ with comments and discussion prior to the surgery.

The third session will be a forum on international orthopaedic education with active participation from scholars at University of South Carolina, Queen’s University (Kingston), Sites in Monterey, Merida, Johns Hopkins Medical Institute and Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral University (Quito) etc.

Higher Education Commission’s video conferencing project has so far connected nine universities in Pakistan through IP-based video conferencing system, so that students of such universities, who are not in a position to benefit from high profiled teachers, can avail the opportunity to learn, exchange their ideas, contribute and communicate their views in order to enhance their knowledge and capabilities.—Online