The Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) have jointly launched an historic initiative under which HEC & PTCL will connect all universities/ degree awarding institutes in Pakistan through high speed network.
This is part of the HEC vision to significantly increase the interaction of Pakistani academics, students and intelligentsia with peers across the globe and facilitate knowledge transfer, learning and innovation.
Under this initiative, PTCL will connect 85 universities already linked via the Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN) this includes 26 universities, which are at present not connected through PERN. Further, this will expand to134 universities and campuses by the time this work is finished.
As part of this initiative, PTCL will ensure the provision of redundancies of this Internet and Intranet of the university network and deploy a converged solution involving wireless and wire line technology.
The purpose of this agreement is redefining and restructuring existing PERN, which connects 59 universities and institutes of higher learning. Under this agreement PERN connected universities will be provided a reliable, secure and redundant connectivity via PTCL and segregated Intranet and Internet connectivity will be established for all universities.
PERN-Pakistan Education and Research Network is a nation-wide educational intranet connecting premiere educational and research institutions of the country. PERN focuses on collaborative research, knowledge sharing, resource sharing, and distance learning by connecting people through the use of Intranet and Internet resources.
This step will enable Pakistani students and professors to engage and interact the world in advance knowledge pertaining to medical sciences, information technology, biomedical engineering and sciences, biophysics, latest R&D and telemedicine practices in addition to the world of Arts & Literature. PERN intends to disseminate knowledge and thus empowering the next generation to compete with ever change world.-PR