President Alvi asks varsities to promote market-oriented research.

ISLAMABAD -- President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday stressed the need for conducting market-oriented research and development activities in the universities and equipping the youth with marketable skills as per the market's requirements.

He said Pakistan had enormous human resources in the form of its huge youth bulge, which could be turned into an asset by equipping them with in-demand skills and providing them with technical and vocational skills. This, he said, would help enhance national productivity and efficiency besides providing gainful employment to its youth.

President Alvi expressed these views while speaking at the convocation ceremony of the National University of Technology (NUTECH) in Islamabad. Rector NUTECH retired Lt-Gen Moazzam Ijaz, members of the faculty, the graduating students and their parents attended the ceremony.

Speaking at the ceremony, the president said that with the advancements in technology, modes of learning were also changing and now a great volume of information and knowledge was readily available on online platforms.

Dr Alvi underscored the need to increase the number of graduates, particularly in the fields of IT, Cyber Security, Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, by imparting education through distance, online and hybrid modes of education.

He said that virtual and hybrid modes of education had resulted in reduced tuition fee and training durations in many US-based universities, adding that Pakistan already possessed the necessary infrastructure to promote virtual and hybrid learning. He said that the virtual...