PHEC to promote setting up of community colleges

Official says commission has already launched project in five cities

LAHORE: The Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) in collaboration with the Higher Education Department (HED) launched the Community Colleges project following the successful model of the United States, said PHEC Director General (QA & Accreditation) Zia Batool.

She was talking to a delegation from the community colleges of the United States which visited HEC on Wednesday. They met with the senior management of PHEC and principals from five existing community colleges of Punjab.

The visit was facilitated by the American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS), Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) and included representatives from Montgomery College Maryland, California Lutheran University, Sauk Valley Community College, Mesa Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, Spokane Community College, Gadsden State Community College, and Seattle Central College Washington.

PHEC to promote setting up of community colleges

Speaking on the occasion, Batool said that the programme offers 2-year associate degrees in practical and employable fields of studies to prepare students to enter the job market and produce a skilled workforce. "The model offers high-quality education with technical expertise at a low-cost," said Batool. "The education is being imparted in the market-oriented disciplines, with a core focus on the job-ready skills of the students in order to meet the growing needs of the industry and bridging the industry-academia gap," she added.

She said that PHEC was ardently working to enhance access and affordability to high-quality education for the students through these community colleges. "Currently we have established five community colleges in five districts - Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur- in Punjab. Provincial Minister for Higher Education Raja Yassir Humayun Sarfraz has taken a keen interest in the project and we have been pledged the fullest support of Govt. of Punjab in expanding this project to all nine divisions of Punjab," said Batool.

She said that the Associate Degree programme of community college was the best alternative as the two-year conventional BA was phasing out.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2019.