‘Varsities should not rely on govt funding only’

Minister says educational institutions should be encouraged to generate resources

LAHORE:

Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Rana Tanveer Hussain has said that the universities should be encouraged to generate resources other than the Government’s funding.

He was addressing a meeting held at Higher Education Commission (HEC) office on Thursday.

HEC Acting Chairperson Dr Shaista Sohail gave a detailed briefing to the minister on roles and responsibilities of HEC as well as challenges being faced by the higher education sector. The meeting was attended by all divisional heads of HEC.

The minister underlined the need to strengthen universities’ capacity for resource generation as well as efficient management of these resources. He also urged the HEC to put more effort to increase the quality of the country’s higher education.

He also stressed on enhancing access to higher education in such a way that it does not compromise quality.

The minister stressed that more efforts are required to implement the policies to improve quality in letter and spirit. “There is no denying the fact that access to higher education must increase, but there should be a constant improvement in the quality of education and research.”

“Teachers play a key role in any education system. HEC has a system in place for their capacity building, but it needs to be further strengthened and planning should also be done to include training of college teachers. Secondly, the world is shifting towards a system where the focus is being given to skills of students therefore we also need to train our teachers and university management to plan their curricula and teaching methodology in that way,” he said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2022.