Higher Education Commission (HEC) has successfully connected universities on Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN) for interactive video conferencing with 14 countries, including major universities such as Johns Hopkins and University of Columbia.
By participation in the mega global Conference on Health, Pakistan formally joined Internet2 (www.internet2.edu), a high-speed network linking it to over 200 top research institutions of the United States.
It will directly facilitate researchers to gain access to high quality research material and even participate in collaborative experiments. As the event was being hosted from Pakistan, all MCU management and co-ordination was done from HEC Secretariat Islamabad.
The first ever event to be telecast via video conferencing entitled,' 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 HEJ Institute of Science and Technology, while University of Health Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University and King Edward Medical College University interacted smoothly and extensively with professors across the world.
Prior to the international link-up, Dr Sohail H. Naqvi, Executive Director in his welcoming remarks described HEC's technological infrastructure programme, and said PERN included computerisation and networking of HEC while the same facility had been given to all public sector universities.
On December 6, there will be a live telecast of 'Arthroscopic Shoulder Surgery' with comments and discussion prior to the surgery. Interactive participation from Columbia University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Hong Kong University, IIT New Delhi, University of Athens, McCormick Centre Chicago, and GDLN World Bank, Washington DC will be available.
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, Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral University (Quito) etc.
HEC'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 from them, exchange their ideas, contribute and communicate their views to enhance their knowledge and capabilities.
Universities and institutes of higher learning will be able to use video conferencing facility to carry out distance learning or include lecturers from other locations.