LAHORE, June 16: Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool has underscored the need to create 'vibrant' linkages between professional education institutions and industry to bring about a quality change at both levels.

The governor was chairing the Inter-University Faculty Board meeting called to review the revised curricula of engineering sciences at the Governor's House on Wednesday.

University of Engineering and Technology vice-chancellor Muhammad Akram and deans of different faculties elaborated on changes made in curricula and courses to meet the modern-day requirements.

The governor stressed that industry should offer internships to professional institutions' students while the universities should sponsor short executive courses for senior engineers so that they could brush up their knowledge. He said internships should be made compulsory.

Several industrialists, who were present, said the industry would offer better internship facilities to the students of professional education universities. They said the graduates, who came to their industries, had merely theoretical knowledge and no practical skills to handle the modern and sophisticated equipment.

The UET VC observed that industrialists made tall promises at meetings, but later accepted very few students for internships. He said the industries must enhance the number of interns, besides sponsoring research projects and chairs in different departments.

A university dean said the UET had developed many state-of-the-art laboratories to impart practical skills to its students. The VC admitted that the engineers of the UET lacked communication skills.

In order to improve these skills, he said, the university had started Spoken English classes for the students. It also urged the faculty members to communicate in English.

Mr Akram also assured the meeting that the observations made by the industrialists about certain courses and suggestions to improve curricula would be analysed. He said the university was also increasing the number of UET graduates and promoting applied research on the campus.

The governor stressed that the curricula should be designed with a vision that how a student would start studies and eventually where he would go. In the beginning, he said, all students should study the common courses before opting for specialized ones.

He said the government was fully supportive to promote the cause of higher engineering education. He said several engineering programmes had been started at the Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, and an engineering college in Gujranwala. The government was also considering the plan to establish engineering colleges in Sialkot and Faisalabad.

ISLAMIC STUDIES: The IUFB for Islamic Studies has recommended inclusion of courses on human organ transplantation, blood transfusion, cloning, postmortem, life insurance, rights of owners and buyers, and Islamic banking system.