HEC steps up to foster confidence of all provinces

Provin­cial consul­tative groups set up to streng­then role of Higher Educat­ion Commis­sion’s region­al centre­s.

ISLAMABAD:

Higher Education Commission (HEC) has constituted four Provincial Consultative Groups (PCGs) to strengthen the role of HEC’s Regional Centres in all four provinces.

The PCGs will address concerns of the smaller and less-developed provinces regarding equitable distribution of resources and provision of enhanced services at provincial capitals. The aim is to foster an efficient role of provinces in the policy making of higher education sector and its effective implementation, said HEC officials. They said the decision was taken after receiving much criticism that HEC was ignoring less developed provinces while making major decisions pertaining to higher education.

Providing details, the officials said that the PCGs will give recommendations after assessing the current role of HEC’s Regional Centres, identify functionalities of HEC’s main office which can be transferred to its Regional Centres immediately, and those which may be transferred in the future. Each group, headed by a Vice-Chancellor (VCs), will develop a mechanism for formal consultation with the provincial governments, chancellors and VCs in the region, besides identifying indicators for determining successful operation of HEC’s Regional Centres.

The officials added that PCGs will meet via video conferencing to save time. The deadline for delivering final set of recommendations for each Regional Centre is June 30, while the final meeting of chairpersons of PCGs will be held at HEC Secretariat on July 15. The final set of recommendations will be forwarded to the HEC chairperson for approval by July 20.

New staffing requirements for the regional centres will be fulfilled and a director-general will head each centre to ensure whether all tasks agreed by the PCG can be actually executed.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Balochistan, Quetta, Dr Abdul Nabi will head the PCG for Balochistan; Director at the Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Dr Nasser Ali Khan will head the PCG for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Dr Mujahid Kamran will head the PCG for Punjab; and Vice-Chancellor of Iqra University, Karachi, Dr UAG Isani, will head the PCG for Sindh.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2011.