PR No. 112 MINISTER OF STATE ENGR MUHAMMAD BALIGH UR REHMAN CHAIRED THE MEETING OF HIGHER EDUCATION COMMISSION REGARDING THE NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION TODAY Islamabad: June 15, 2016

Agenda of the meeting included; Scholarship Programs, Criteria For M.Phil And PhDs,  Facilities For the Special Students, Pakistan Chairs Abroad, Collaboration with Different Countries Regarding Higher Education, and over all achievements of HEC.

Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar briefed the minister of state regarding the scholarship programs monitored and facilitated by HEC. He said that around 2654 students have been sent on scholarships from 2009 till date through different agreed programs among countries and HEC. He added that there is no lapse of scholarship for the year of 2016. But there is always a room for improvement. Minister of State directed the chairman HEC to design a new website with the proposed name of “Learning Opportunities Abroad” which would be link to the websites of HEC and Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training. This new website would contain all the information starting from the scholarships available to the destination available for studies to the accreditations of foreign universities etc. it would give a comprehensive account to the Pakistani students about the opportunities available in the world. It would help the local students immensely as they would have easily accessible information at hand. Minister of State also directed the HEC to write letters to all the embassies here and asked them to provide the information regarding the scholarships available in their respective countries for international students.

Chairman HEC told the minister about the criteria of selection of PhDs, he said that they have recently conducted a study in which they have identified areas in which PhDs are required. For example textile, sports, logistic, transport and supply chain these are among the few areas which need experts. He also said that they have already started implementing that study in true letter and spirit. Talking about the facilities for the special students, Chairman HEC said that as per the direction of Minister of State HEC have drafted the shared it with all the universities.

 

After getting the input from the universities the policy would be adopted officially. Moreover he told the Minister of State about the Pakistan Chairs Abroad, he said that they are 14 Chairs of Pakistan Abroad including in Germany, Egypt, Turkey and China etc. they are several chairs which are vacant. These chairs are mainly looked after by the Cabinet Division with the collaboration of HEC. They also discussed the criteria of sending suitable candidates for the position of chairs abroad. Talking about the collaboration of HEC with different countries Minister of State said that while collaborating with countries like Romania and Belarus in education, we should keep their expertise in mind. Like Romania is very good in medicine and agriculture so we should learn these things from them. HEC overall performance, Human Resource Development and Research and Development areas were also discussed in the meeting.

          Minister of State proposed to give grant of Rs. 2 Billion to the public sector universities, out of this grant, universities would create their own endowment funds. This grant would increase by Rs. 1 billion in every 10 years. The grant would be for the need based financial assistance/loan. Student after getting the job would pay back to the University, of 10% of his/her annual salary. A renowned and credible agency would be hired for the assurance of the return of the money.

Meeting was attended by the Federal Secretary Humanyon Khan, Additional Secretary CADD Qaiser Majid, Joint Education Advisor Rafiq Tahir, Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar and officials of the ministry and HEC.

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