HEC Pushes Universities to Make Artificial Intelligence Part of Academic System

Institutional-level campaign planned to promote AI adoption; universities directed to train faculty and students in emerging technologies.

Syed Naveed Hussain

LAHORE: Chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar, has called for making Artificial Intelligence (AI) an integral part of the country's higher education system, stressing that AI has become an educational necessity and ignoring it could create a significant gap in knowledge, research and innovation.

Addressing an online session organised by the HEC with representatives of various universities on the use of artificial intelligence, Dr Akhtar said universities must embrace modern technologies and launch an institutional-level campaign to promote the effective use of AI. He urged vice-chancellors to ensure that faculty members and students receive proper training to utilise AI tools in academic and research activities.

Drawing a comparison with the earlier restrictions on calculators, the HEC chairman said calculators were once prohibited in educational institutions, but had now become a widely used learning tool. Similarly, artificial intelligence should be accepted as part of the education system.

He encouraged students to benefit from modern AI platforms, including ChatGPT and Meta AI, while emphasising that such tools should serve as assistants rather than replacements for human intelligence, creativity and independent thinking.

Dr Akhtar said teachers must design questions and academic assignments in a manner that encourages students to demonstrate their own intellectual abilities, creativity and critical thinking. He noted that AI tools could sometimes overlook important aspects of a subject, making human judgement and analytical skills indispensable.

The HEC chairman informed participants that AI-related training sessions had been underway at the commission's regional centres for the past nine weeks. International workshops on artificial intelligence are also scheduled to be held in Lahore and Islamabad next month, with experts from Türkiye, China and the United Kingdom extending their cooperation.

He said "AI for All, AI in All" was among the HEC's top priorities, adding that learning artificial intelligence had become essential for everyone, particularly students and young people preparing to meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving technological landscape.

Dr Akhtar further disclosed that a High Performance Computing (HPC) system, worth billions of rupees, had been installed at the HEC's Lahore Data Centre and was expected to become operational within the next few weeks.

The advanced computing facility would significantly enhance processing capabilities and support AI-related activities, research and innovation. He clarified that the HPC system would be accessible to both public and private sector universities.

He urged all higher education institutions to benefit from the government-provided facility, saying that access to advanced computing resources would help strengthen the country's research capacity, improve the quality of education and accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence across the academic sector.