Kandahar
University - On 2 June, AIT Pres. Said Irandoust
met with Mr. Abdul Tawab and
Mr. Kamal faculty members
of Kandahar University to discuss possible cooperation
between Kandahar University and AIT. Kandahar University
would like to partner with AIT in the capacity building of its
university through the Strengthening of Higher Education Program
(SHEP), Ministry of Higher Education, Afghanistan
supported by the World Bank. Kandahar University
will provide AIT and the SHEP with the list of needs of the
University for which AIT’s assistance and expertise will be required.
The SHEP has already communicated with AIT informing us that they
support the initiation for the possible collaboration and subsequently
for AIT to prepare a technical and financial proposal. A delegation
from AIT will visit Kabul in the third week of June and
will meet with officials from Kandahar University and SHEP
for further discussion.
Balkh
University - AIT have been informed through
Mr. Abdul Hai Sofizada, Policy Advisor,
Strengthening Higher Education Program (SHEP), Ministry of Higher
Education, World Bank, Kabul, Afghanistan that they would
also favour the initiative for AIT to support Balkh University (BU) in
the official establishment of the Department of Computer Science
(CS). Based on the feedback from BU through the project
manager of the AIT-BU Partnership Project and discussions with the
relevant experts at AIT, AIT recommended, to establish a new ICT
department instead of a CS department. The ICT department will be more
relevant to the infrastructure development in Afghanistan
and can also include curriculum parts of CS, Remote Sensing (RS)
and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This will also set BU
apart from other universities that already have CS departments.
AIT has strong expertise in CS, TC, ICT and RS/GIS areas and will be in
a very good position to assist in this matter. This matter is currently
being discussed, and a formal proposal will be prepared and submitted
to relevant authorities, upon receiving formal confirmation.