Brief Introduction:
Headquartered in Islamabad, the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) is the largest public open university in Pakistan. The AIOU was established in May 1974 under Act No. XXXIX passed by the Parliament of Pakistan. It was initially named as the People’s Open University, renamed as Allama Iqbal Open University in 1977 at the eve of the first centenary of the national poet and philosopher, Allama Muhammad Iqbal.
The President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is the Chancellor of the Allama Iqbal Open University. The Federal Minister for Education is the Pro-Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor of the University is its principal executive and academic officer.
The AIOU provides degree education at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels as well as non-degree education programmes. It has 9 regional campuses, 33 regional centres, 41 approved study centres (for face-to-face programs) and 138 part-time regional coordinating offices. With 1172 Study Centres, it is the biggest university in the country with average student enrolment of more than 1.2 million per year.
Cooperation with the OUC：
From 1 to 3 October, 2013, the 27th Annual Conference of Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) was held in Islamabad, Pakistan. Zhang Hui, vice president of the OUC led a five-member delegation to attend the conference. This annual conference was organized by Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU).During the conference, Baleeghur Rehman, Minister of State for Education, honorary vice chancellor of AIOU, met with Zhang Hui, vice president of the OUC and expressed the hope that the two open universities could carry out multi-level cooperation in various sectors in the future. Professor Nazir Ahmed Sangi, vice chancellor of AIOU, hoped to establish cooperation with the OUC as soon as possible. He indicated how extensive the economic cooperation between China and Pakistan is and that the local employees are eager to learn Chinese. He suggested establishing a language lab in AIOU and hiring teachers from the OUC to teach Chinese and carrying out Chinese training for joint venture companies together with the OUC.
On 9 June 2014, Prof. Ali Asghar Chishti, vice-chancellor of Allama Iqbal Open University of Pakistan, along with his party of two other persons, visited the Open University of China (OUC).
Both parties discussed Chinese language teaching, international cooperative projects, 3D printing at the Project Research Centre, talent exchange projects, and so on, and planned to cooperate in such aspects as Chinese language teaching, cooperative research, periodicals, and academic works exchange based on the principles of equality and mutual respect, resource sharing, reciprocity, mutual benefit, and mutual development. Yang Zhijian, president of the OUC, and Prof. Ali Asghar Chishti, vice-chancellor of Allama Iqbal Open University, signed the cooperative agreement on behalf of both parties.
Prof. Ali Asghar Chishti and his party also visited the school history exhibition themed “Deep Integration of Information Technology and Education — from the Radio and TV University to the Open University of China”, the automatic HD recording studios and examination monitoring system in the Learner Support Centre, and the digital library and Chinese Language Centre.