LAHORE: The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) Chairman Prof Dr Tariq Banuri stressed the need to allocate one per cent GDP to the higher education sector.
According to a local media report, he also stressed on autonomy for universities and policy shifts to bring Pakistani universities among the top 500 worldwide. He visited various universities in Lahore including, the Punjab University, the Government College University (GCU) Lahore, Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) and the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore.
Following this, he said that the HEC would launch policies to bring 15 Pakistani universities among the top 500 worldwide and in the top 100 Asian universities. He further stated that one per cent of the GDP needs to be allocated to the higher education sector.
Dr Banuri also said that the autonomy of universities would not be compromised adding that the HEC would form the National Research Agenda for the betterment of country, society and academia.
He said, “Universities will have to compete for these slots by assuring the commission that they have a transparent system of management in place to safeguard quality.”
During his visit to the GCU, Dr Banuri said, “The commission would approach the incoming government to create 15 slots for universities which would be granted autonomy and additional resources to be competitive with the top higher education institutions of the world.”
At the LCWU, Dr Banuri said, “The varsity would be among the 15 universities to be given autonomy and additional resources.”
