HEC to launch English language course
By Uzma Babar

ISLAMABAD—The Higher Education Commission (HEC) would launch a standardized English language course for M.Phil and PhD students at the national level.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Sub-Committee on English held under the auspices of HEC’s Committee on Development of Social Sciences and Humanities. The meeting reviewed the content, curriculum, pre-testing, pedagogical tools and assessment standards for the proposed English Language course. It was decided that a comprehensive course with three main components including speaking, reading and writing skills would be designed in order to improve the language proficiency of M.Phil and PhD students.
The meeting also finalised recommendations for faculty and institutional development, training, and promotion of research culture in the discipline of English. The task had been assigned to the Sub Committee by Dr. Ishrat Husain who is Chairman of the Committee on Development of Social Sciences and Humanities. The Sub-Committee also raised the issue of absolute paucity of HEC recognized journals in the field of English. The members stressed the importance of improving the standard of existing journals and starting new ones which fulfill the HEC criteria.
The meeting also appreciated the efforts of HEC for initiating a number of practical steps in order to strengthen Social Sciences and Humanities in the universities of Pakistan. The participants believed that these steps would be quite helpful for socio-economic development of the country.
The meeting was chaired by Dr. Nasir Jamal Khattak, Associate Professor, Department of English, and University of Peshawar.