Moalims

ISLAMABAD: Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed on Saturday issued an impassioned appeal to the vice chancellors to pay heed to governance issues that beset the universities and ensure quality education at the sub campuses, sources said.
“There is no doubt regarding the need to increase access but not at the cost of quality”, he said while addressing the 17th Vice Chancellors’ Committee meeting held in Islamabad on Saturday where over 65 vice chancellors of the public sector universities were present. In his address he also pointed out that many of their woes were due to governance issues and needed serious attention urgently.
The vice chancellors were united in their demand for review for autonomy of their universities after different provinces have amended laws that govern the universities. The heads of the leading educational universities passed a resolution saying, “We the Vice Chancellors of public sector universities are of the opinion that recent changes in laws governing universities is an attempt to usurp their autonomy albeit the argument was ostensibly to improve governance, the changes will be a death knell for higher education in the country”.
After detailed deliberations the vice chancellors agreed to the need to curtail MS and PhD programmes at sub campuses and allow them only to offer under graduate programmes after ensuring strict compliance with HEC prescribed eligibility criteria. The HEC has issued multiple warning to educational institutions to follow the criteria set for them.
Earlier the chairman informed the gathering that the HEC has received an Rs7 billion development grant for completion of projects that were pending due to lack of funds in previous years and Rs 3 billion recurring grant to facilitate operational expenses. Through these additional funds over 80 projects would be completed by the end of the year. The VCs thanked the chairman for all his effort for obtaining the additional funding.
The meeting also reviewed the public private partnership model which is a contractual agreement framed between public and private sector partners. Many heads expressed their reservations at the model. It was decided that a committee of the selected VCs would review and report back to the forum for further decisions.