Staff Report
LAHORE: Chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad, called on Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi to discuss measures to promote higher education in the province.
The meeting was held at the Chief Minister (CM) office, where PML-Q leader Moonis Elahi and Higher Education Secretary Ahmad Raza Sarwar were also present.
New universities need of the hour
The CM believed that exposing the youth to skill-based technology was the need of the hour, and new universities would be established for the purpose. The implementation of a uniform pay scale for university teachers was being reviewed, and it would be linked with performance, he maintained. He said further that the advanced courses were being offered for free in collaboration with Microsoft to enable them to compete with the world by adopting modern and new trends in the field.
CM Elahi further said technology was changing daily, and higher education would also have to adapt to modern requirements. The Punjab government would fully support the HEC to improve university governance. He said it was necessary to end ad-hocism in universities to correct the academic and administrative affairs of the campuses, adding much work needs to be done to promote research, and stipends should be increased for students to get higher education. The CM said recruitment had been approved of teachers to meet the shortage in schools and colleges.
Earlier, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman said while talking to the media that higher education was facing a dearth of competent staff to be posted as vice-chancellors. He asked university teachers to change their focus from monetary benefits to promoting research and teaching.
Ahmad, while replying to a query about adopting a four-year bachelor programme in universities and colleges, said the decision had been taken in 2005 but was completely implemented in 2018. The two-year associate degree programs started by different universities were not up to the mark. The varsities had not synchronized and updated the degree syllabus according to the four-year BS program.
The HEC chief said the commission was upgrading and updating the syllabus so students could enter any BS program’s fifth semester. He further said that due to a shortage of funds, the university administration was directed not to start a new project.
