Table of Contents

  Executive Summary. 2

1.     Introduction and Background. 5

2.     Vision and Strategy. 7

3.     The Project 10

4.     Stakeholder Analysis. 13

5.     Curriculum and Content Production. 15

6.     Technological Delivery Options. 18

7.     Management and Organizational Structure Management and Organizational Structure. 22

8.     Marketing and Advertising. 26

9.     Financial and Economic Analysis. 28

10.     Conclusions and Recommendations  41

Annex A: Technological Delivery Options. 44

Annex B:  Financial and Economic Analysis. 48 Not Available online.

Annex C: List of Institutions Visited and Persons Interviewed. 83

1.   Introduction and Background

There is a severe shortage of quality IT faculty in Pakistan, and the same can be said for many other countries in the South. Academia has lost a large number of qualified individuals to the software industry and this loss has not been replenished. What little faculty is left in institutes of higher learning is spread out in various universities without forming a critical mass at any single point.

Similarly, the output of qualified graduates from the various Bachelors in Computer Science programmes from all Pakistani institutions is estimated at about 4-5000 annually. Out of these, only 500 or so are classified as having international level skills. This number needs to be drastically increased if Pakistan is to get on the IT road map. There is an immense shortage of skilled IT manpower worldwide, which is projected to increase exponentially in the coming years. Pakistan should make all efforts to benefit from this.

The motivation behind the VITU is to bring together a critical mass of quality faculty to provide world-class education in the IT sector to a large student body. The Virtual IT University (VITU) will utilize the services of quality individuals wherever they may be without relocating them. This may involve faculty members located outside the geographical limits of Pakistan.

A parallel development will be the establishment of the South Institute of Information Technology, initially a separate project proposed to the G77 Summit in Havana in April 2000 by Pakistan’s Chief Executive. We propose that these two projects be merged. However, the analysis in this feasibility study is based largely on the VITU. Estimating the additional costs and revenues which would be generated by including non-Pakistani participating institutions and students resident outside Pakistan requires an international study which could not be undertaken in the short time available.

VITU aims to provide quality education to a very large number of students. Considering only the Bachelor’s level, it is estimated that annually over 40,000 students would want to pursue a career in Information Technology after qualifying their Intermediate examinations (12 years of study). This is in addition to a substantial number of engineers who want to re-train and enter the IT job market in the pursuit of more lucrative careers. The existing colleges and universities can only cater for a small fraction of these. VITU would be able to provide large-scale educational facilities for these students nation-wide. Further, by eliminating the need for qualified faculty at each VITU campus, the project would be able to provide this environment nationwide, even to remote areas.

Private sector institutes are generally better equipped than their public-sector counterparts as far as equipment used for the teaching of Computer Science is concerned. Local Area Networks are slowly replacing stand-alone computer systems. A recent scheme that has allowed the collaboration of private parties with public-sector colleges has been especially beneficial in establishing modest computer laboratories in many colleges of the Punjab. Other provinces are following the same path and it is anticipated that availability of computing resources will become widespread for the majority of higher secondary school students in the very near future.

The staff situation, on the other hand, is especially critical. Very few institutions (colleges or universities) can boast of adequate numbers of faculty, and even fewer would claim quality. Hence, the quality of education being imparted at the Bachelor’s level and higher is generally dubious. 

2.   Vision and Strategy

The starting point and key for the expected success of the VITU and SIIT is that there is a documented, strong demand for computer science graduates meeting world standards of quality. There is a shortage of such graduates in the OECD countries, witness the active recruitment of IT workers in developing countries such as Pakistan and India. This demand is felt and articulated in Pakistan as well – witness the hollowing out of computer science departments in all the first and second tier universities and the springing up of literally hundreds of IT institutes of to say the least, questionable quality. And then the VITU has been declared the highest priority project in the Ministry of Science and Technology’s IT Action Plan, with the highest budget allocation of any project. In short, the project meets critical, felt and articulated need for IT personnel for domestic and international markets. Similar needs have been expressed in neighboring countries.

Second, the project may be seen as the first step, a proof of concept, for a “smart, learning nation” approach to socio-economic development in Pakistan. It will use learning centers in public and private universities and institutes all over the country and beyond to teach vital skills. This will accelerate human capital formation and unleash the creative talents of the population, even in remote areas. From teaching IT, Pakistan can proceed to teacher training to improve the quantity and quality of primary and secondary school teachers, and the VITU could expand into other strategic areas of knowledge.

The smart, learning nation strategy will improve learning for all, from pre-school children to retirees – from “k to gray”.

In today’s globalizing, knowledge-based economy, knowledge embedded in the labor force is a critical productive resource, equally if not more important than physical capital, land, and other natural resources. The future will belong to those individuals, companies, and nations who are able to capitalize on the revolutionary rapid and sustained fall in the cost of processing, storing, and transmitting information and knowledge – for which no end is in sight – to increase their competitiveness. It is now technologically possible to learn any thing, any place, any time, and in the not distant future, with the advances in automatic translation, in any language.

The key to a smart, learning nation development strategy is to organize institutions and the population at large to take advantage of the technology now available to unleash and nurture the talent in the full population, not just a mostly-urban elite. The Internet and the telecommunications technologies that can make it accessible to anyone (through public and private learning centers for those who cannot afford connections in their homes) can be a great leveler.

Investing in education of the people is the easiest and most politically acceptable way to redistribute income and wealth. When we make knowledge available to those who do not have it, we do not need to take it away from others who do. It is a win-win development strategy. The only “losers” could be those who enjoy temporary monopoly rents from possessing knowledge – their relative incomes could fall, but then they could learn more and new things, investing in themselves.

The real losers will be those individuals, enterprises, and nations, which fail to invest in knowledge using new, more efficient Internet-based teaching and learning technologies. They may be left behind, perhaps irremediably. There is a real danger of national and global “digital divides”.

IT can be a catalytic engine of development, spurring productivity increases in other areas of the economy. This essence of this realization has been captured in the IT Policy of the Government of Pakistan, which states as its vision:

“To harness the potential of Information Technology as a key contributor to development of Pakistan”

The IT Policy goes on to outline its mission as “the rapid development of infrastructure in synchrony with the creation of highly trained individuals and teams and directing them at transforming our society into a prosperous and dynamic one through the creation and free flow of information and knowledge. The Policy is directed at encouraging and assisting the entrepreneurial spirit, and making the fruits of this technology available to every citizen”.

VITU will become a critical component for achieving this vision. It will encourage business/academic “fusion” by bringing together the various stakeholders (producers, educators, consumers, and employers)  to focus on their common objectives. Further, by actively involving a broad base of public and private sector educational institutions, the market-oriented approach of VITU will encourage the development of strong, collaborative partnerships thereby leading to a general improvement in the quality of education being imparted to the coming generations.

Pakistan has made considerable strategic investments in its telecommunications infrastructure in the form of optical fiber backbones, satellite links, microwave communications etc. Cable TV with broadband Internet connectivity as well as DSL projects have been initiated. Two-way VSAT broadband connections are possible today and will prove to be a cost effective means for reaching neighboring countries in the near future. The process is in fact accelerating and there are several current projects aimed at bringing communications in general and Internet connectivity in particular to a major segment of the population.

VITU intends to actively capitalize on these investments and assume a key role in realizing the benefits promised by the introduction of these technologies.

Submarine fiber now provides communications towards both the East and the West and there are several alternatives available for connection via satellite to the neighboring countries. The coverage includes South and South East Asia, the Central Asian states, the Middle East as well as Africa. VITU would therefore be able to command a large audience even beyond the geographical borders of Pakistan – evolving into a premier information technology institute for countries of the South.

There are no technical obstacles to the concept. The challenges are principally organizational.

The feasibility study includes low (minimum necessary to justify the effort), most likely, and high (most ambitious, stretching the envelope, most effective, highest-cost) scenarios/options. 

 3.   The Project

VITU will address this situation by using the following approaches:

·         Public and private sector institutions that could provide adequate computer laboratories would be invited to participate in the VITU programmes. This would alleviate, to some extent, the pressure on the VITU to establish its own dedicated campuses. Hardware already installed at these institutions would be validated and put to proper use, thereby increasing its utility manifold.

·         Faculty expertise would be identified and utilized from its original location. Thus if an expert in networking was located in Karachi, while an e-Commerce expert was located in Islamabad, both would be invited to become part of VITU’s faculty. These resources would not be hired on a full-time basis but would be signed on for a particular course and paid on the basis of their time involvement. The concept of utilizing these resources from their original locations would not be limited by the geographical boundaries of the country. Thus, if cutting-edge expertise were available in the United States, VITU would also utilize this.

In order to maintain a high standard in the quality of education imparted by the VITU, a tutor-network is envisioned. These tutors would be Master’s level graduates who would have undergone teacher training. This tutor network would considerably value-add to the interactive experience of the students of VITU.

VITU will establish one administrative centre, which will act as the hub coordinating all activities of the University. This Administrative Centre will house the management as well as the basic electronic infrastructure for enabling the activities of the VITU. This will include, but not be limited to, Servers, Communications equipment, Content development workstations, CD-Writers and print media duplication facilities.

VITU will help establish a network of over 100 “Virtual Campuses” countrywide over the next four years. VITU itself, however, will own and operate only one such campus. Direct contacts will be established with all major national universities, both public and private sector, and they will be invited to subscribe to VITU programmes, both as providers as well as consumers. Participating institutions will then act as “Virtual Campuses” for VITU. Where there is a lack of such institutions, VITU would actively seek private sector involvement to set up “pure” virtual campuses. These would only be consumers of the VITU courses and would allow the dissemination of world-class education to remote areas. Subsequently, VITU would consider directly establishing Virtual Campuses only in areas where no major institutions exist and where private sector involvement cannot be obtained.

The Virtual Campuses would develop a total capacity for 50,000 students nationwide. Utilizing the centres on a full-day basis with a possibility of round the clock usage will further enhance this capacity to 100,000 or even beyond.

The Virtual Campuses will be equipped with state-of-the-art multimedia projectors and screens and multimedia personal computers. A Virtual Campus will be networked internally and also be interfaced to a high-bandwidth Wide Area Network (WAN), thereby allowing it to connect to all other Virtual Campuses as well as to the Internet. Video equipment to receive television broadcasts and display via the multimedia projectors will also be incorporated in these centers.

VITU will also set up a “Virtual Library” which will provide electronic collections of course and supporting material. A CD-ROM library will be kept on line through CD Jukeboxes that will allow a huge amount of literature to be accessed directly by students of VITU. Subscriptions to electronic databases and libraries will also be established and offered through the Virtual Library. The library will also scan and make available useful resources from the Internet on a continuous basis.

The Virtual Library will also maintain the entire course collection of the VITU on-line. Electronic books will be made available by signing agreements with major international publishing houses. Linkages will also be sought and established with other electronic libraries, regardless of their location.

A comprehensive Courseware Management and Delivery system is also part of the facilities to be provided by VITU. Courses will be delivered through television broadcasts, online webcasts, video on demand and web-based content. This way, if any student misses the actual lecture/broadcast, he/she would have the opportunity of reviewing it at a later date or time. Similarly, by providing the entire lecture material in the form of web-enabled content (video-on-demand as well as hypertext), the full power of hyperlinks will be utilized to further enhance the learning process.

The Courseware Management and Delivery system will involve the use of television studio facilities, as well as multimedia content development facilities. The television production facilities of the Allama Iqbal Open University could be utilized for this purpose after an agreement to this effect is made. The multimedia content development will be done at the Administrative Centre or outsourced to other institutions/experts wherever they may be, in line with the concept of the VITU.

Project benefits: The impact of this project is multi dimensional.

1.       It will provide a pool of highly trained professionals, which is non-existent at present.

2.       It will enhance the quality of education in the existing IT institutions.

3.       It will alleviate, to a certain extent, the severe faculty void in the existing IT institutions.

4.       It will enhance the skill set of IT professionals

5.       It will provide companies a core of trained manpower and it would encourage companies to expand into new areas. Internationally, there is an acute shortage of qualified manpower and the opportunity exists for companies to make major inroads if the necessary expertise becomes available.

The country is IT deficient at present. There are not enough professionals to cater to the requirements of the local IT industry, let alone the huge international demand. This project will provide quality manpower in IT. This trained manpower will be able to tackle large-scale projects in bigger organizations such as WAPDA, Sui Northern and Southern, CDA, PIA, Railways etc. as well as allow the local software industry to undertake sizeable international projects.

4.   Stakeholder Analysis

Public and private sector universities and educational institutions were visited in several major cities of Pakistan. These included chartered as well as un-chartered institutions. These institutions were approached with both perspectives: as potential “sellers” of courses, as well as potential “buyers”. The interviews showed strong support from these institutions without any visible opposition. In fact, a considerable amount of excitement was generated by the project. All institutions were very aware of the issues faced by them, which were the very same factors, driving the VITU project: lack of adequate faculty and the requirement of a large, highly trained IT workforce. 

International analysis, especially for countries of the South, would require a separate mission.

The two principal stakeholders in the telecommunication area – PTCL and NTC – were also interviewed with a view to determine the technological infrastructure. The study found that excellent communications infrastructure existed in the form of redundant optical fiber backbones in the country and both institutions were found very willing to collaborate in the exercise. Whereas PTCL owns the fiber backbones, the NTC has been charged with carrying the public sector communications traffic and has two fiber pairs at its disposal on each of the backbones. It is currently involved in setting up the switching equipment in various exchanges and has outlined a plan for nation-wide coverage as well as connecting major educational institutions. As such, the NTC seems to be the logical choice of carrier for VITU requirements.

The study also interacted with the principal consumer segment – software houses. It found complete support for the project. Software houses are already collaborating with several educational institutions by providing internships for students, validation of examinations and also by providing adjunct faculty to several Universities. This is an excellent example of industry-academic cooperation as this collaborative approach is critically needed and industry has to provide a direction for the educational institutions, especially in the fast paced IT sector.

5.   Curriculum and Content Production

Major Universities have expended considerable efforts in developing curricula aimed at providing high quality IT education. Out of these, the institutions having qualified faculty members would classify as “content-providers”. Content could also be acquired from participating non-Pakistani institutions. However, these content-producing institutions are also potential buyers of content from VITU. There remains the challenge of developing common courses accepted by all the content-producing institutions for use in their own curricula. For the mainstream computer science courses, this should not pose too much of a problem because of the existence of standardized courses as outlined by the IEEE, ACM, and other such bodies. The overall curriculum would depend on the degree being offered.

Content producing institutions would have the option of offering their own degrees, filling holes in their teaching staff with courses purchased from VITU. However, they could also offer the VITU degree if they so choose. Pure Virtual Campuses would, of course, offer the VITU degree exclusively.

The Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) is actively seeking a role in this project, and in principle it is worth building on their infrastructure and experience, but perception of low quality as found in interviews with software houses and other institutions may be an obstacle. Their curriculum and content are currently under revision and content originating from AIOU could be utilized by VITU if it satisfies the quality requirements. Another role for the AIOU would be for their regional centers to upgrade to VITU learning centers and become pure Virtual Campuses for VITU. This may be especially valuable if the AIOU centers are located where no other major educational institutions exist or where no valid private sector participation can be found.

As an overall quality assurance mechanism, the establishment of a national computer science association as a professional body, would be crucial in developing external assessments (examinations), as well as raise the prestige of the profession. The proposed National Testing Service (part of the IT Policy) would be the primary mechanism for conducting the assessments. VITU would actively look towards the National Testing Service as a third-party quality assurance body and would require that its graduates qualify the NTS test. This would also allow VITU graduates to be ranked with their peers from other conventional universities.

VITU envisages a three-tier delivery model for its courses. An acknowledged master of the field would be the overall in charge of a course. He/she would act as the “knowledge-provider” for the course material and would also deliver lectures over television/streaming video where applicable. The course material would be transformed by instructional designers into web-based video content or hypertext, and webmasters would then be used to deploy the content. The entire group from the course in charge down to the webmasters would act as a cohesive team.

In order to maintain a high level of interactivity, a tutor network would also be used by VITU. Local instructors would be available at the learning centres to guide students where needed. An Instructor Supervisor would manage a defined group of Instructors and answer student questions beyond the capabilities of the local Instructors. Advanced or important questions would be forwarded for reply to the Professor in charge of the course and also for incorporation into the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) list. All student queries would be responded to within a defined time period. All instructors/tutors would have to be validated by VITU and may even undergo instructor training at VITU before being employed at their Virtual Campus.

A fast-track option for VITU would be to focus on re-training qualified engineers and other holders of two-year scientific degrees. As this student population would already have covered the basic mathematics and humanities requirements, VITU could concentrate on CS courses and start turning out qualified computer scientists in a short period. Subsequently, VITU could move on to inducting fresh entrants into the four-year degree program.

The suggested sequence of events for VITU is to start short updating courses for existing IT professionals as soon as possible. These courses would be used to test the system during the period (January –August 2001) and ascertain the quality of knowledge/education delivery as well as the feedback mechanisms, while also testing the content development models. Subsequently, VITU could start the 4-year degree program with a fast-track option for engineers and other graduates as outlined above.

It is important to develop the understanding that the lecture is not the ideal unit of content for e-learning. Instructional designers will help in the “translation” of traditional content into modern web-based interactive instruction, with clear learning objectives, time budgets (for students), study guides, on-line tutoring, group project development, and other forms of interaction. Many students will eventually be doing collaborative work with distant partners over the Internet – their training should include doing work in this mode.

Developing a group of competent instructional designers will require technical assistance for training them, possibly technical assistance from abroad. This should be an integral part of the project.

While the “camera in the classroom” approach may be used to capture content initially, this is only a first step toward creation of a balanced mix of text, graphics, animated graphics (Flash animations, etc.), audio clips, and video clips. Bandwidth will not be a major constraint for the institutions on the optical fiber system, but “talking heads” should be used with discretion, and probably selectively where personality, body language, and “performance” really make them worthwhile.

One obvious place for video is for the professor to introduce himself to students, and outline the course objectives, methods, etc. establishing his “telepresence”. Another good use of video is for live debates on controversial topics, where the interaction between participants is well captured by video and done in a studio setting. Studios may be rented for this purpose.

Video may also be useful for introducing difficult topics, motivating students, and the like, where the personality of the guru and his felt presence is important. But excessive use of video runs the risk of being a poor competitor with high-production-value TV programs, and it is not worth investing the kind of money necessary.

6.   Technological Delivery Options

This section summarizes the detailed analysis contained in Annex A. The Pakistan Academic Intranet (Educational Network) is also part of the IT Policy. VITU should give high priority to delivering content over the proposed network. TV-based delivery is an immediate option and promises the broadest coverage. This would have to be coupled with the provision of a reverse interaction channel over the Internet. Major educational institutions in the larger cities would link to VITU over the optical fiber backbone but could also use TV-based reception of contents to relieve data congestion on the intranet.

The optical fiber backbone is already in place. The academic intranet would involve rings in major cities, with the rings connecting over the backbone to other cities. Institutions would be linked to the city rings. The academic intranet should operate at OC3 level (155 mbps) if possible, but a minimum of 2 mbps would be required.

The national fiber backbone has ample redundant connectivity to the Internet via satellite and submarine cables as shown in Figure 1. The planned expansion of the backbone through 2004 is shown in Figure 2. Coverage is expected to be quite complete, but last mile connectivity would have to be implemented for the educational intranet. New fiber could be laid, or spread-spectrum radio modems could be used. Radio-modems would offer a fast solution (possibly temporary) for up to 10 MBPS of connectivity to participating universities and other institutions providing learning centers. Cable TV infrastructure as well as DSL are also becoming available and could be considered for last mile connectivity. Remote sites could be connected through 2-way VSAT connections. Several satellite options are available for the country and the region providing wide-area coverage. Thaicom 3 and AsiaSat 3S are modern satellites that are available today. Intelsat 902 is a latest model satellite scheduled for launch in third quarter of 2001. Their footprints are shown in Figures 3-5.

Figure 1: Current National Fiber Backbone

Figure 2: Planned Development of the National Fiber Backbone through 2004

 Figure 3: Thaicom 3 Regional Downlink Beam Footprint

Figure 4: AisaSat 3S Footprints

Figure 5: Footprints – Intelsat 902 60 E

7.   Management and Organizational Structure

A Board of Governors should be the principal governing body for VITU. It should be composed of eminent scientists and professionals, renowned educationists, prominent businessmen and entrepreneurs, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education. The BOG would set overall VITU policy and direction, approve the budget submitted by the Vice Chancellor, order and review financial audits, hire (and have the right to fire if necessary) the Vice Chancellor (basically the CEO, who would recruit his own core staff).

The SIIT Board would include representatives of the most important (in numbers of students) countries participating in the SIIT.

An Academic Council, composed of prestigious computer scientists from public and private sector universities, software houses and research institutions inside and outside Pakistan would review all courses proposed for the VITU/SIIT curriculum and its approval would be required for a course to be offered. The Academic Council would also approve changes in the curriculum, including recommending short updating courses for IT professionals in the VITU/SIIT continuing education program. Assessing the quality of content would also be one its main concerns.

Overall leadership of the VITU requires a Vice Chancellor (VC) with the following skills:

• Entrepreneurial, capable of mobilizing financial and human resources
• Technically world class, with the respect of the Pakistani and international IT community
• Diplomatic/political, capable of motivating stakeholders and getting them to work in harmony toward common objectives

The staffing of VITU should be kept at the minimum level necessary to operate efficiently. There would be no gurus at VITU headquarters, but there would be a core academic group responsible for overall maintenance of the content, assignments, quizzes and other  mechanisms to assess student performance. The same group would be responsible for the FAQ’s and e-mail responses to student questions. The “gurus” would be contributed by content-producing member universities and institutes, Pakistani and foreign.

VITU/SIIT could and should have a group of expert instructional designers and webmasters to work with the gurus to translate lecture-and print-based content into web-based learning materials. Below the VC we propose the following key staff for the VITU

• Dean IT (Academic responsibilities)
• Registrar (Record keeping responsibilities)
• Treasurer (Financial responsibilities and negotiations with outside agencies)
• Network Executive (VITU Network and communications responsibilities)
• Dean Instructional technology and design
• Business/Marketing manager/PRO (Negotiating with participating institutions, marketing the concept, media relations etc.)

The academic infrastructure will also be kept lightweight with the concept of the core group being policy makers and facilitators, capable of utilizing the services of talented individuals wherever they may be located. Thus, education through VITU will be carried out using the core academic group, instructional designers, audio-video experts, and webmasters working with a distributed adjunct faculty.  

The academic and management staff of the VITU is anticipated to start out with 22 individuals, including the VC, growing to a total of 81 in four years, including the VC and other managers. The majority of this staff would be the instructors responsible for student interaction. The growth of the academic group is anticipated as shown below:

Another important group of the staff will report to the Dean, Instructional Technology and Design.

The Dean, Instructional Technology and Design would be one of the Instructional Designers

This group, composed of instructional designers, audio-visual experts, and webmasters, will be responsible for developing VITU’s online educational materials, using the latest e-learning technologies and web-based instructional design methods.  

Recruitment and training of this group will be a major responsibility of the VC, and the group must work closely with the staff reporting to the Dean, IT. This group is a service group to the academic staff, who are responsible for the intellectual content of the VITU/SIIT courses. 

But there is a big difference between lecture-oriented classroom instruction and web-based distance learning, making full use of all digital media (e.g. e-mail and derivatives such as threaded discussion forums, listservs, chatrooms and recorded chat archives); video and audio clips delivered via streaming from a server (all delivered over the Internet by landline and/or satellite) and possibly broadcast television. This group will help the academic staff make and manage the transition. 

The Dean, Instructional Design and Technology should have, or be acquiring at least a master’s degree in online distance education – several such programs are being offered through online instruction from US and European institutions. 

Since these skills are in short supply in Pakistan, a national / international search for instructional design and technology experts should be conducted to find a suitable person to occupy the position at least temporarily, and a training program using international experts undertaken as a high priority for the staff reporting to the Dean, Instructional Design.

If feasible, all courses will have externally assessed final examinations. The comprehensive examinations prior to awarding the BCS degree should definitely be assessed externally, preferably by the National Testing Service.

Feedback mechanisms will be employed to get constant input from students, tutor supervisors, and tutors to make necessary mid-course adjustments and constantly seek to upgrade quality. 

Annual evaluations of the VITU program will be conducted by an international review board selected by the Board of Governors

VITU will establish a virtual placement service, on the Web, which will allow graduates of VITU/SIIT to display their résumés, transcripts, recommendations, e-mail address, telephone numbers, and other relevant information for hiring. VITU will also promote its graduates through advertising, face to face (F2F) job fairs, and the like.

8.   Marketing and Advertising

The study found strong support to the concept of VITU/SIIT among the various stakeholders that were interviewed. However, to create an environment conducive to long-term survival of VITU, a focused effort would be required through strategic communications, marketing and advertising of the concept to create a favorable climate of opinion and build client support. It is important that the support base among stakeholders should be as broad as possible.

The objective of this effort is to build political and financial support for the concept of VITU, more broadly, for a smart, learning nation strategy where the delivery system for IT education points the way to K-to-gray education and training – lifelong learning for anyone, anyplace, anytime, with just-in-time learning being an important part.

Electronic media will get heavy emphasis: in part the medium is the message – Television, and radio programming, use of websites, some push Internet material to selected mailing lists (via e-mail). Print media will not be neglected – newspapers, magazines are important to obtain the widest and long lasting coverage.

Initial contacts with a TV production company which is also developing an ISP and a print/electronic media conglomerate which is moving into ISP business and already puts its newspapers on its website (and gets a lot hits from Pakistanis living abroad) produced enthusiastic support, with a strong willingness to be involved.

All formats of TV should be considered – segments of news programs, documentaries, public service announcements (IT Minute), talk shows, round table discussions, dramatic serials (soap operas / telenovelas / mini-series with IT and development, learning nation themes built in). Dramatic serials are the most expensive, and would be in the high-cost (and benefit) scenario.  Most of the same format would apply to radio.

Print should also consider a variety of options – normal news coverage, special inserts in newspapers and magazines, op-ed pieces, editorials.

Advertising should be used not to build political and financial support so much as to inform the public on courses available, fees, application deadlines, and the like.

 9.   Financial and Economic Analysis

Project Capitalization

The capital expenditure on the various expense heads of the Virtual University is projected to be incurred over a period of 24-30 months by which time it will evolve into a full-fledged distant learning institution with maximum/ full capacity. The capital expenditure for the Virtual University is projected to be incurred from January 2001 to December 2003 under the following main expense groupings: 

Summary of the proposed capital expenditure heads and their budgeted amounts and funding is given below, details of which are given in Annex B-1.

Capital Expenditure Budgeted Amount and Timeframe

Table-1

Rs. In ‘000