ISLAMABAD: Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) on Friday marked the World Science Day, re-pledging its commitment to promote education of science and technology in the country through distance learning system.
Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Shahid Siddiqui while chairing an academic meeting said that they were exploring all avenues to provide a platform to the students to enhance their scientific knowledge and get its due benefit.
In this connection, a two-day mega event is being arranged in the University on November 15 to enable the researchers to showcase their projects for promotion and marketing.
The event is also aimed at tackling the issue of unemployment, with a motto ‘say no to economic dependency’ and to motivate the idea ‘Be job developer, and not a job seeker’. It will also facilitate the researchers to showcase their projects for marketing as well as developing linkages between academia and industry.
According to the Vice Chancellor, the University has also planned to hold an international conference on Chemistry later this month. This will be a big step forward bringing the researchers on one platform, enabling them to update their knowledge in the relevant fields.
The University has recently upgraded its labs’ facilities, and opened the same for the students of all the educational institutions other than the AIOU. A most modern Fabrication lab has also been set up in the Science Block where the students could get practical support in carrying out their research projects.
As a step forward to promote science education, the AIOU on the initiative of the Vice Chancellor has launched a number of new academic programs in the fields of sciences technology, said Dr. Uzma Yunus of the Chemistry department.
These programs include BS, MS, PhD level education in the various disciplines including environmental sciences, mathematics, statistics, botany, physics and micro biology.
The University has set up a special office of Research, Innovation and commercialization to establish linkage between the researchers and the industry for application of scientific knowledge in addressing the society’s socio-economic issues.
Development of peace and development that is theme of this year’s World science Day will remain priority in their educational pursuits, the VC added. DNA