The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has been working strenuously to promote access to higher education in the country with a prime focus on the quality of education.
These views were expressed by HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed during his visit to the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on Sunday.
He said that ‘Vision 2025’, a detailed plan and strategy for better education system in Pakistan, has been prepared.
FPCCI Vice President Manzoor ul Haq Malik said that higher education was very important for a knowledge based economy. Pakistan’s higher education system needs to be reengineered effectively to perform better according to global standards, he said.
He said that different programs for producing professional and skilled human resource capital should be developed on a priority basis not only to compete with the globe but also to cater the needs of CPEC projects. To reap the benefits of this project, the higher education must produce the type of human resource that can meet the project’s needs and requirements, he claimed.
Malik said that for any system to work, it was imperative that relevant structures be developed. Legislation and structures should be framed to promote education in the country.
Appreciating the funding in research projects and laboratories, the FPCCI vice president said tjat research was a very important aspect for the growth of the economy. Sector wise and district wise research should be conducted with substantial efforts to identify priority research areas. Foreign scholarships should be given on merit while PhDs program should also be encouraged.
HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed appreciated the FPCCI vice president’s suggestions and briefed the house about HEC’s reforms since 2002 and said that the number of universities has been increased to 180 in 2017 from only 59 in 2002.
The higher education sector has expanded rapidly after the 2001 and has been increasing exponentially ever since. During the same period, the access ratio has also shown improvement from 2.6 % to 9% and enrolment in higher education programs has also shown positive improvement including a large proportion of women. He said out of 48,000 faculty members only 11,800 had PhDs. The quality of research has been also improved with 800 papers being published in 2002, and 12,000 this year alone. Research papers of Pakistani intuitions are highly credible and being cited by various economist and scholars, he claimed.
While talking about the HEC’s Vision 2025, Dr Mukhtar said that it was a plan in which the requirements/responsibilities of the commission were identified to meet human resource requirements for boosting Pakistan’s knowledge economy.
He said that the HEC would always be there to facilitate industry and academia for the growth of the business sector though reforms required in the education system. This cannot be done by the government alone, and public-private participation and a mix of formal as well as non-formal education can pull the majority of the country’s population toward becoming productive human assets, the chairman said.