MARDAN: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Higher Education Meena Khan Afridi on Thursday inaugurated a multi-purpose IT centre at Women University Mardan.

The multi-purpose IT centre was established with the support of UN Women and the Korea International Cooperation Agency, under the digitalisation for women’s economic empowerment initiative being implemented by the Indus entrepreneurs and its partners.

The ceremony was attended by members provincial assembly Tufail Anjum and Abdul Salam Afridi, secretary higher education Dr. Mohammad Israr, vice chancellor Engineering University Dr. Gul Mohammad, secretary local government, and others.

The centre, set up under the university’s office of research, innovation and commercialisation, aims to equip female students with modern IT skills.

On the occasion, Meena Khan Afridi said the government had increased the higher education budget from Rs24 billion to Rs50 billion.

He urged universities to generate own resources through market-based research and new business models alongside government funding.

He added that the government was introducing modern disciplines such as computer science, robotics, data science, and software engineering, and implementing new systems to improve university performance.

Measures were being taken to provide fee concessions for orphan students and to promote women’s education, he said.

The minister assured that the required funds for the completion of the new building at Women University Mardan would be provided soon.

Meanwhile, the minister for higher education inaugurated the solarisation project in the new academic block of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan.

Mr Afridi said the government was taking steps to promote higher education as well as aligning universities with modern requirements.

UNIVERSITIES FESTIVAL: More than 600 artists from 73 universities of the country participated in various competitions during three-day national festival of ideas, art and innovation at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan.

Students from all over the country took part in various competitions. The festival was organised in collaboration with the Directorate of Youth Office, Peshawar.

Vice-chancellor Prof Jamil Ahmad distributed prizes among the students, who showed best performance in the competitions.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2026