Higher education witnessing renaissance, says Atta
By Bushra Rafique

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minister and Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman said Friday that the last four years have witnessed a renaissance in the higher education sector, while history will bear witness to a new era heralded in by the Higher Education Commission.
Atta, who is also adviser to the Prime Minister for Science and Technology, was speaking at the opening ceremony of Vice Chancellors and Rectors Meeting hosted by HEC here on Friday.
The Chairman expressed his gratitude to the assembled vice-chancellors /rectors involved in this historic change that has created countless opportunities introduced by HEC which after the government’s realization for the need to invest in the youth of the country, the real asset and provide them high quality education for the country’s progress.
He expressed his pleasure that universities were coming alive after staying dormant for over 50 years. As a result of the efforts undertaken by HEC a 3.5% annual growth has been witnessed in the research published in the ISI internationally abstracted journals, he informed. He said that there was need to make the university a hub of creativity and live up to its pivotal role in the progress of the country.
He said there was further need for HEC and the vice-chancellors/rectors to work together in a concerted manner especially in implementing the quality criteria for PhD. At present 7,000 students were enrolled for PhD studies across the country but it was important to ensure quality of the product as quality must come before quantity. HEC will not recognize PhD degrees if the HEC quality criteria are not observed, he added.
Discussing the series of HEC reforms undertaken in the last four years he said that the 4-year Undergraduate Programme was in the process of implementation and would raise our graduate degree to the international level. Quality Assurance Cells already working in many universities were helping ensure quality but universities also needed to look deeply and improve their quality assurance system and have a built- in a system of external review as well.
He mentioned establishment of 50 international linkages with the British universities that would help improve quality in our universities. He encouraged the establishment of more such linkages with partners abroad for improvement.
He also stressed the need to employ a few hundred PhD faculty members in order to function as a genuine university.
Dr. Sohail Naqvi, Executive Director HEC giving a presentation of the major programmes initiated by HEC in the universities stressed on the lead role of vice chancellors in the successful implementation of these programmes. He said it was HEC’s aim to increase students’ enrolment in universities from the present 3.6% to 8% and asked universities to set themselves quantifiable targets for the next 15 years.
Under Faculty Development Programme, he informed the gathering that so far 2140 scholars were engaged in the Indigenous PhD programme, 171 engaged in post doctoral studies while 1531 faculty members had received in-service training. Dr. Naqvi asked the vice chancellors to streamline faculty selection procedure, encourage faculty to engage in PhD studies, maximize training opportunities for faculty and engage foreign faculty to enhance their standards.
Discussing maintenance of quality assurance he stressed the need for conversion to semester system and embrace semester culture. He reiterated the need to introduce the Tenure Track System to attract high quality faculty, introduce a two tier quality assurance system of self evaluation as well as through quality enhancement cells.
The Meeting discussed standardization of academic sessions throughout the country with special emphasis on Total Quality Management (TQM) in academic field and research programmes, which stresses style, total staff and faculty commitment to the satisfaction of the students. Ranking of public sector universities, Governance and Management of Universities and Institutes, Tenure Track System, Provision of Development and Recurring Funds to newly established universities and Development issues came under discussion.