ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has approved the appointment of five new members to the executive council of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU).

Former AIOU vice chancellor Dr Shahid Siddiqui, Director Research Support Pakistan Science Foundation Dr Mirza Habib Ali and ex-VC of Quaid-i-Azam University Dr Mohammad Ali have been appointed as the new members of the executive council in the category of persons of eminence.

Former VC of University of Sargodha Professor Dr Mohammad Akram has been appointed as member of the council in the category of Aalim (religious scholar) while deputy chief of party Higher Education System Strengthening Activities, University of Utah, Dr Ayesha

Razzaque has been appointed as member of the executive council against the woman’s post.

Sources said President Alvi being chancellor of the AIOU approved a summary and soon the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training will issue a notification in this regard.

President approves summary and a notification will soon be issued by ministry, says offici

Last month, the ministry of education moved the summary to the President Office for approval of the new members against the vacant seats.

Earlier, AIOU had sent the summary to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) proposing three names against each post.

Sources said the HEC made amendments and replaced some names with new ones and also mentioned the names of outgoing members in the panel so that if the president wanted to retain some of them he could do so.

Subsequently, the ministry moved a list of final panelists to the president.

The AIOU is country’s largest distance learning university with a large number of students. It offers wide range of degree programmes and it fees as compared to other public sector universities is far less.

Meanwhile, a few days ago the academic council of the university also approved the launch of new diploma and certificate programmes.

A meeting held on Tuesday with Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Nasir Iqbal in the chair approved the new courses as well as changes to the title and content of several BS, MS/MPhil and PhD courses.

The meeting also approved the launch of various courses, including PhD in agricultural technology, MPhil in gender and women studies, PhD in counter-violent extremism and terrorism,

international financial reporting standards, medical microbiology, molecular diagnostics, climate change and sustainability, public health and nutrition, sustainable environmental design, certificate courses in Arabic, Tajweedul Quran and criminology.

The council also approved skill-based courses in chemistry and three-month short courses.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2024