The COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), which received its Charter from the Federal Government in August 2000, as a Degree Awarding Institute (DAI) in the public sector. Pursuant to the Federal Government of Pakistans decision, it is slated to be upgraded to the status of a university, more precisely Comsats University (CU).

Being federally established institute, the CIIT currently has six campuses in Islamabad, Lahore, Wah, Abbottabad, Attock, and Sahiwal, while six more campuses are in pipeline including Gujrat, Toba Tek Singh, Karachi, Quetta, Vehari, Larkana. The future plans also envisage opening of more campuses in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan, as well as overseas. Currently the CIIT is offering 35 different degree programs in the fields of Information and Communication Technology, Management Sciences, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Bio-sciences, Development Studies, Environmental Science, Meteorology, and Architecture and Design.

The present student strength is around 12,000 with faculty strength of 1,274. The Institute in the short time has already produced high quality graduates numbering more than 5,599, who are serving the nation in the various callings. Recently, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has ranked the CIIT at number 7 in terms of research productivity and at number 8 among the Engineering institutions of higher education in the country during 2006.