Following an aggressive strategy to strengthen its online education presence, Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) is offering several new online degree courses to Pakistanis stationed abroad. The courses are in addition the university’s existing online PhD and MPhil programmes that follow international best practices.
The university is continuously updating its educational plans for overseas students and vastly improved online study material and examination arrangements for expatriates.
In a latest update, AIOU has registered 30 new candidates in its Daras-e-Nazami programme. The four-year course leads to a degree in Islamic studies. The registered students are based in New York.
Besides the existing courses, AIOU aims to introduce several new online degree programmes to facilitate the educational quests of overseas Pakistanis, with Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Shahid Siddiqui even mulling the launch of post-graduate level programmes. AIOU recently introduced a one-and-half-year B.Ed. programme for overseas Pakistanis which the university claims has received great appreciation.
Dr Zahid Majeed, member of the university’s Directorate of Overseas Education Programmes, said AIOU had close to 350 registered students living across the globe, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Bahrain and the US.
He said the vice chancellor had laid special emphasis on providing educational facilities to the overseas Pakistanis and promotion of online education at the higher education level was the future strategy that the university would aggressively pursue.