Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology (SUIT), Peshawar is one of the largest and top ranked multi-disciplinary Research & Teaching University of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, established in 2001 and offering 80+ degree programs from Bachelors to Doctorate level with highest number of Academic Departments / Institutes and award winning faculty. SUIT has state of the art Video Conference Room, Video Recording Studios, Seminar Hall, spacious class rooms and labs equipped with ultra-modern equipment and teaching facilities. The University has been ranked as category W-3 by Higher Education Commission (HEC-Pakistan) in terms of meeting academic, financial and physical infrastructure. In 2024, the university achieved another milestone by establishing the Islamabad Campus with the approval of HEC.
In line with the government's policy of developing a large pool of qualified human resource, the University decided to launch its Distance Learning Program in 2002 initially in the Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad Capital Territory, which is in conformity with its Charter and is recognized by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Thus, apart from the traditional mode of face-to-face teaching at the Main Campus, SUIT is also successfully running its Distance Learning Program through its Student Support Centres (SSCs) which act as facilitation centres in a particular area and to provide certain academic and infrastructural facilities to the distant students. The current strength of distant students through this program is about 15,000, who are getting quality education at their doorsteps and playing their positive role in the development of the country at National and Provincial levels. Currently, through more than 70 well-established Student Support Centres, the degree programs of Arts, Social Sciences and Education, Management Sciences, Computer Sciences, and Allied Health Sciences are offered throughout Pakistan.
The province/region wise details regarding SUIT's legal status to offer Distance Learning Programs is as under and available at: https://www.suit.edu.pk/#/Distance-Education
SUIT's distance learning program offers the following merits:
For implementation of the HEC's ODL Policy requirements with particular reference to the provision of video lecture recordings for distant students, the University engages qualified faculty (E-Learning Faculty) and has developed a Media and Learning Management System (LMS) to ensure recording and uploading of quality video lectures. In this regard, the University established state-of-the-art studios for recording of educational contents along with a post-production department for the editing and review of the lectures. So far thousands of video lectures have been recorded and uploaded on the LMS and YouTube channels of the University to facilitate the distant students. Thus, under the blended mechanism, the University plays a major role by providing recorded lectures to the students in asynchronous mode using its LMS while the tutors at the SSCs have face-to-face or online (synchronous mode) interaction with the students.
It is worth mentioning that for Distance Learning, SUIT follows the same curriculum which is approved by the statutory bodies of the University for the main campus students. The University engages qualified faculty from within or outside the University for recording theory courses/lab experiments for programs that are offered through the Distance Learning mechanism. For courses involving lab work, the lab experiments are recorded at the main campus and are available for the consumption of distant students via the same LMS, whereas, the component of lab work, requiring involvement/guidance of a tutor is conducted in the relevant lab of the SSC. The University provides fee structure, degree program structure, plans and administers admissions, examinations and declares results. Summing up, the University ensures that the distant students avail the same benefits as the regular students avail at the main campus.
