ISLAMABAD: Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal has stressed the need for strengthening linkages between academia and industry for human resource development.
He was addressing the National Consultative Conference on HEC Vision 2025 here on Monday.
The minister said the government has allocated a sum of 35.5 billion rupees for the Higher Education Commission under the Annual Development Plan 2017-18. Iqbal said due to frequent lapses and political reversals in development policies in the past no agenda could yield its desired results.
He said, “Now is the time that we must align our abilities and education system to the demands of time so that the Vision 2025 can successfully culminate and the country be ranked among top twenty economies of the world.”
The minister said universities have to develop minds that have a never ending thirst to acquire knowledge.
He said, “If our universities will follow the seven pillars of HEC Vision 2025, they will become a role model for the world. “If universities will not become the engine of innovation, the country will not be able to get the entry pass for 4th Industrial revolution”, he added.
Ahsan Iqbal asked the universities VC’s to make sure that provision of degrees should be based upon market demand and subject relevance.
