The Higher Education Commission (HEC) organised its first ever orientation workshop for the newly appointed vice chancellors (VCs) and rectors under the Modern University Governance (MUG) Programme for University Management. HEC Chairperson Dr Javaid R Laghari was the chief guest in the closing ceremony of the two-day workshop held at Commission secretariat on Thursday. The main purpose of the programme was to share HEC initiatives with university heads and take their feedback for further improvement. Twenty five VCs who recently took on offices attended the workshop said a press release.
In his address to the VCs, Dr Laghari emphasised that the role of a VC was very critical adding, “a university leader is expected to develop an administrative team and become a role model for other faculty members and administrative staff as well as the students,” he said.
Thanking the university heads for participating in the workshop, he said the feedback and suggestions put forward by them would be given due consideration. “We believe that all guidance should come from the VCs while the HEC should act as an implementing authority,” he said.
The chairperson expected that the programme would ensure that the management system of universities was equipped with the best tools for leadership and governance, which will facilitate and support the academia in the most efficient and effective manner. “The programme will become a regular feature of HEC initiatives,” he said. The VCs said the activity had been very useful and productive and they had learnt many new things which they would like to implement in their institutions. They said it had provided them a platform to interact and learn from each other’s experience and urged the HEC to hold such activities on a regular basis. Earlier during the workshop, the University of Birmingham VC and University of Wales Deputy VC also participated from the UK through video conferencing to discuss leadership and good governance in higher education institutions. Dr Mary Linda Armacost, Former president of two US universities, conducted a session on “institutional heads’ role as educational leaders”.
HEC holds MUG workshop
