Overview

The world has transformed into a global village. Access to, and retrieval of, information has become easy, and distance learning, especially through electronic media, is gaining wide popularity the world over. Many feel that distance education can be as effective as face-to-face education. While the advanced countries are tackling issues like digital divide, we in Pakistan still face the problem of illiteracy. It is a known fact that the participation rate of Pakistani youth in tertiary education is one of the lowest in the world.

The obvious reasons for this are:

ü       Financial constraints affecting the common man.

ü       Insufficient number of academic institutions in the country.

ü       Inadequate number of institutions of high quality.

In line with the government's policy of developing a large pool of qualified human recourse, the University has decided to launch its Distance Education Program, which is in conformity with its Charter and is recognized by the Higher Education Commission.  It is worth noting that SUIT is the only private sector university in Pakistan allowed by its Charter to offer education through distance/ virtual means. 

The University's distance education program offers following merits:

ü     Reaches wider student community.

ü     Provides opportunity for obtaining higher education at costs affordable by common man.

ü     Helps students complete studies without suffering emotionally or financially due to relocation.

ü     Possibility of seeking help or appearing in examinations while out of town.

ü     Enables students to earn while they learn.

Due to these reasons our distance education program has gained popularity and thousands of students (within the country and abroad) have opted to benefit from it. Today, the process of learning relies heavily on (i) interaction with fellow students, teachers, and experts, (ii) timely instructions, guidance, and advice of mentors and teachers, (iii) access to modern tools used in sharing of information, (iv) availability of books, journals, and other reading material (i.e., library, CDs etc), and (v) access to laboratory facilities, especially in the case of sciences and applied subjects. 

Technology, which is a major source of demand placed on institutional learning, offers solutions to this problem. At Sarhad University, technology enhanced learning environments has become common place for both traditional and distant students. In some universities abroad, the distance education students are provided accesses to the laboratories of the academic institutions, when the latter’s regular students are away during vacations. The Distance Education program of SUIT places a student in an environment similar to their future habitat as an intellectual worker in the 21st century. The students learn to use technology to seek structure, interpret, and assimilate information. Information is presented in all forms including direct lecture, media enhanced lecture, conferencing, books, papers, videos, and simulations. In short, technology enhanced distance education at Sarhad University uses all forms of media and information transfer methods.

The University liaises with some established academic institutions to act as Distance Education Centers in order to provide access to our program. These centers facilitate the students to attend online lectures, seminars, and workshops, use library and laboratory facilities, and seek counselling, help and guidance. All the students enrolled in distance education program through the centers are the bonafide students of the University as they are assigned registration and enrolment numbers by the central admission office. The University provides fee structure, degree program structure, detailed course outlines and other relevant material to the students through the centers. The University plans and administers examinations and declares results. The degree, to the students studying via recognized centers are awarded by the University after fulfilment of its degree requirements.

The factors that have contributed towards enormous success of our Distance Education Program include: open and honest communication with the centres and the students, support to the centers and Distance Education students, world-class curricula, a mechanism of periodic feedback and review/ revision of the syllabus, centralized arrangement and conduct of examinations, and affordability of the program by common man. Registration of thousands of distance learning students in only four years is a testimony to the popularity and effectiveness of the University Distance Education program.

Distance / Online Education
Inorder to strengthen the facility of Distance Education Centres, Sarhad University uses a renowned software for dissemination of information and to impart knowledge to its distant students through the Internet.
Salient features of the software are:

ü       Allows the classroom to extend onto the web.

ü       Allows a common place for students to go for many classroom resources.

ü       Teachers can post news items, assign and collect assignments, post electronic journals.

The official Address of the facility is
http://de.suit.edu.pk