After 18 months: HEC gets permanent executive director

ISLAMABAD:

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) governing body finally picked up a name for a permanent executive director of the regulatory body after a hiatus of 18 months.

The governor body also approved names on other key positions during its 31st meeting chaired by HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed and attended by 11 members, said a press release issued here on Monday.

The body approved the name of Dr Arshad Ali as HEC Executive Director. Ali has been rector of the National Textile University, Faisalabad.

The position had been vacant since April 15, 2014, and the office was being run on ad-hoc basis.

Similarly, Dr Fateh Muhammad Mari has been appointed as adviser monitoring and evaluation, Dr Mohammad Latif as adviser quality assurance and learning innovation and Waseem Hashmi Syed as adviser human resource division.

The body also made policy decisions on various issues related to academics and quality assurance.

The commission discussed and conceptually approved the establishment of the National Accreditation Council on Allied Health Sciences and the National Accreditation Council on Life Sciences.

The huddle advised that a detailed proposal should be presented to the commission in its subsequent meetings. The commission also approved bridging of old BA/ BSc programmes with BS (four years). This would be possible upon completion of 15 to 18 credit-hour after two-year BA/ BSc. A standard-based four-year BEd (hons) and a two-year Associate Degree in Education were also ratified.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2016.