- Research much focus the country’s socio-economic development: HEC Chairman
“The universities’ prime focus should be on producing quality graduates,” said Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Javaid R Laghari on Tuesday while interacting with newly appointed vice chancellors (VCs) at the inauguration ceremony of the “Two Days Follow up Workshop for the Development of Governance and Strategic Planning Framework for Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) of Pakistan” at HEC, Islamabad.
He termed the faculty and students the heart and soul of the higher education system. Citing recent survey findings of 400 presidents of American universities, he said that university graduates should be equipped with good communication, analytical and research skills and should have values of tolerance, peace, community service and civic responsibility.
He also emphasized that research should focus on the issues related to the country’s socio economic development by pioneering innovative ideas, products and processes. Inter-disciplinary and inter-university collaborations within and outside the country could be extremely helpful in this regard.
HEC Executive Director Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said that the HEC and its stakeholders would continue to contribute to resolving the country’s socio-economic issues. The VCs in their remarks lauded the HEC’s efforts for effectively reforming the higher education sector and assured their utmost cooperation to the HEC’s senior management.
Earlier HEC Director General Learning Innovation Division Noor Amna Malik informed that the HEC started the Modern University Governance Program 2007 for the continuous professional development and capacity building of VCs and HEIs’ senior management across Pakistan, to equip them with the latest governance tools and bridge the gap between the management and academia. So far, 738 university administrators have been trained and 39 newly inducted VCs have benefited from this program.
During this two day long follow-up workshop the participants of the UK Leadership Program would discuss the action plan of every VC for their respective universities. The participants and three senior VCs would also prepare an action plan on good governance for all HEC recognized HEIs in Pakistan.
