The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has said that provincial governments and Azad Jammu & Kashmir have agreed to undertake collaborative efforts to enhance quality education in the higher education sector of the country.
This was decided during the 11th meeting of the Steering Committee of provincial secretaries held at HEC Islamabad which was presided over by Prof. Dr. S. Sohail H. Naqvi, Executive Director HEC, on Wednesday.
The meeting was attended by Dr. Ijaz Munir, Secretary Higher Education Punjab, Ms. Farah Hamid, Secretary Higher Education Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mr. Sher Khan Bazai, Secretary Higher Education Balochistan, Ms. Aftab Inayat, Additional Secretary Education & Literacy Sindh, Muhammad Mumtaz Khawaja, Additional Secretary AJK, Ghulam Mujtaba Kayani, Advisor HEC, and Mr. Fida Hussain, Director General HEC Islamabad. The provincial secretaries and representatives pointed out various issues related to quality assurance, financial management and governance of universities post 18th amendment.
The meeting was called to deliberate on post 18th amendment roles and responsibilities of the federal and provincial governments in the higher education sector.
The committee reviewed the legal perspective as annunciated in Part I and Part II of the Federal Legislative List in the Constitution and subsequently held detailed discussions on the current and future role of provincial governments in matters related to funding of the higher education sector, quality assurance system and university governance.
It was decided that draft policy papers would be prepared on these issues, taking into consideration relevant experiences of various countries, and to meet regularly every six weeks to move these issues forward.
The committee appreciated the previous role of HEC for the development and improvement of higher education in the country and pledged to work together on evolving a national model that would ensure continuity of reform and improvement in the higher education sector. Detailed discussions also took place on the expansion of the existing four-year Bachelor (Hons) programs in colleges that have received an enthusiastic response from students.
It was also agreed that a bridge program would be developed to allow existing BA/BSc graduates to obtain the four-year honor degree.
There was broad consensus that the true spirit of the 18th amendment and uniform standards should be observed in the higher education sector of the country. In consultation with provincial governments, a paper on funding councils at the provincial level would be prepared by HEC so that effective financial management of the higher education sector may also be introduced at the provincial level.
In addition the best practices would be adopted in this regard. It was also decided that the meeting would be organized on a regular basis on rotation at the provincial headquarters. The next meeting would be held in Peshawar during the mid of November 2012.