Of all advanced sciences, information technology has presently taken the lead in providing promising / enormous opportunities, better than any other industry in the world. IT and its applications are developing exponentially, increasing the demand for IT experts/engineers manifold every year. COMSATS IT Institutes / Centres aim at helping the third-world to develop the critical human resource that could make information technology work for the betterment of the region, and could achieve excellence in this highly rewarding field through development and research. The first Institute was set up at Islamabad, Pakistan, which has become self-sustainable during a short period of 2 years. The success of the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology in Pakistan has inspired the establishment of a similar IT centre at Damascus, Syria, which was inaugurated in January 2001. The IT centres/Institutes in Tanzania, Sudan, Jordan, Tunisia and Iran are next in line.

COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) in Pakistan started functioning in 1998. The institute runs short professional courses, one-year post-graduate diploma, and degree programmes (Bachelors and Masters) in various emerging disciplines of information technology. In the short period of 2 years of its existence, Government of Pakistan has granted the institute full fledge status of a national IT university. It is also involved in software development and other IT related development projects in both government and private sector. www.ciit.edu.pk