Minister in charge for Science and Technology and Chairman Higher Education Commission, Dr Attaur Rahman launched PERN-Pakistan Educational Research Network-which would be of immense benefit for researchers, PhDs and students.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Atta said at present 56 universities have been connected to fibre-link technology and by the end of this year all the universities will be linked to it.
Most important achievement of PERN is the Digital Library through which students and researchers can benefit from 12,000 journals, he said.
The HEC chairman stressed that the PhDs and researchers must take benefit from digital library. He advised the HEC-trained officials to train their faculty members. PERN website has a tremendous scope regarding information of all public and private sector universities and degree awarding Institutes.
PERN website is a dedicated 'Educational Network' for 56 public and private sector chartered universities and degree-awarding Institutes registered with the Higher Education Commission, Government of Pakistan.
The interconnectivity of all these universities and institutes will provide integration of data banks, collaboration for research and development activities and up-gradation of teaching and learning skills.
PERN is part of the overall vision and objectives of IT Action Plan that was launched by Dr Attaur Rehman.
The project is financed by the Government of Pakistan in co-operation with PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited). The network is designed, operated and maintained by NTC (National Tele-communication (Corporation).
The project is aimed to be an integral part of the overall education system of the country so that the students, researchers, PhDs and scholars benefit from the upcoming revolution of Information Technology.
M. Kamran, A senior official of Higher Education Commission, who is working on digital library, informed that through these IT services universities would be linked to American Scientific Society and through High Wire medical students can benefit from 95 journals. New era is associated with Information Technology revolution, he added.
The NTC chairman Shahid Farooq appreciated these efforts and said that this success is the result and fruit of dedicated students of universities. PERN has woven a web of NTC, HEC and the universities, he concluded.
Later, Dr Attaur Rehman awarded shields to Professor Dr Arshad Ali, DG NIIT, Sqn Ldr. Tahir Ahmed, Director NTC, Mohammad Fahad, from NIIT, Shahida Younus, QAU, and Nadeem Nadir Ali Ismaili, to pay tribute to their contributions.