HEC establishes high-speed internet at public universities as a part of its smart university project

Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Wednesday established the most advanced and high-speed Wi-Fi technology at Shah Abdul Latif University located in rural Khairpur as a part of its three-year “Smart University Project”.

Smart City project was launched in 2015 with the objective to equip public sector universities with advanced Wi-Fi and enabling users to freely access internet in indoor as well as outdoor areas of university having a minimum of 60 percent of signal strength along with power backup units (UPS) so students and faculty stay connected 24/7 with an achievable data rate of 10 Mbps to every user.

The Rs 2 billion project also aimed to provide support of Eduroam service that can enable students to get connected to the internet when they are visiting any university locally or abroad that offers Eduroam services.

The Executive Director at HEC Islamabad, Prof Dr. Arshad Ali visited Shah Abdul Latif University and inaugurated the project. The vice chancellor along with notable officials from the university were present at the event.

Prof Dr. Arshad Ali acknowledged the efforts of faculty and administration at the university for their continued efforts to provide quality education in their institute.

He stated, “The HEC will consider every research and innovation project in the country to offer an appropriate funding for its support.”

However, this seems like a small step towards making the universities technologically advanced as a lot is still left to be done such as establishing computer labs in universities with the latest computers and recruiting highly educated faculty in the universities that educates students about Information Technology subjects.