Daily Times

UET Lahore secures Chair, Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. Syed Mansoor Sarwar gets Presidency of UNESCO-ICHEI backed International Institute of Online Education, IIOE.

The annual general meeting of IIOE for the year 2020 took place virtually on December,09 where its academic and strategic stakeholders from across Asia pacific and Africa region gathered online to review progress and map way forward. Chaired by Prof Kefu Huang, Vice Provosts, Minister of Teaching Department, China, meeting was co-hosted by Ain Shams University, Egypt which is rotating chair for the year 2020.   As the world’s 12th educational category centre built by UNSECO and Shenzhen Municipal Government, UNESCO-ICHEI has been committed to harnessing the information and communication technology (ICT) to help the developing countries for improving the higher education quality. UNESCO-ICHEI promotes the idea of knowledge sharing and capacity building through cooperative projects specially in Asia pacific and Africa. The International Institute of Online Education (IIOE), is a flagship project of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI), which aims to enhance the access of developing countries to quality higher education.

The AGM this year brought an opportunity for higher education institutions, HEIs to share their experiences of performing in Pandemic. Representatives of HEIs zealously participated in 3 main sessions comprising IIOE working reports in 2020, Forum of Partner Universities and IIOE joint contribution & sharing eco-system. Representing university of Engineering and technology, Lahore Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Syed Mansoor Sarwar presented how UET managed to get its academic activities on track even in critical time of COVID and how IIOE practices helped putting things in place. IIOE partner camp not only expands but gets more strengthened with the inclusion of institutions like Srilanka’s top ranked, University of Columbo, Universitas Indonesia that is one of the top Public universities in Depok, Indonesia, Malaysia’s top positioned, university of Malaysia, University of the Philippines which is one of the top Public universities in Quezon City, Philippines, University of Computer Studies, Mandalay, Myanmar and other HEIs from Mangolia, Nigeria, Gambia, Ethiopia, Uganda and Cambodia.

It is indeed a matter of great pride for UET Lahore that IIOE secretariate announced Prof. Dr. Syed Mansoor Sarwar, Vice -Chancellor University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore as the President of IIOE and UET Lahore as Chair HEI of the IIOE for the Year 2021. The rotation-based presidency nomination was welcomed by President of IIOE 2020, President Ain Shams University, Egypt and other partner HEIs.

The AGM came to an end with an outcome publication document titled “Recommendations on Accelerating the Digital Transformation of Global Higher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic” presented by Prof. Cher Ping Lim, Chief Expert of IIOE and closing remarks by Prof. Ming Li, Director of UNESCO-ICHEI.