CDWP meeting: Iqbal wants universities to create endowments

Government set to spend Rs41 billion on 21 projects.

ISLAMABAD:

Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal wants to model Pakistani public universities along the lines of their American counterparts, complete with aesthetically pleasing architecture and endowment funds raised from donations from corporations and alumni.

Iqbal, himself a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, initiated these policies while chairing a meeting on Tuesday of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP).

“Every university should establish an endowment fund and the Higher Education Commission should evaluate universities for fundraising from alumni and industry,” he said, referring to a concept pioneered in the US, where universities are ranked, in part, on their ability to raise money for their endowments. He also insisted that the government hire top architects to build university campuses.

The minister also said that the government plans to establish a university in every district in Pakistan that does not currently have one within the next three years. Two of the university projects approved on Tuesday were in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).



Iqbal suggested that the federal government’s decision to expand higher education in K-P was an act of political magnanimity. “Funding for a new university campus in Swat and strengthening Gomal University in Dera Ismail Khan is a proof that the PML-N is partnering with the PTI government for the development of K-P and higher education. We need to work together to build a better Pakistan.” Ahsan Iqbal uses the Twitter handle @BetterPakistan.

K-P is not the only place governed by its political rivals that the PML-N-led government is spending money on. In Sindh, currently run by the Pakistan Peoples Party, the federal government will be paying for Public Health and Nursing Institutes at the Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women at Nawabshah and upgrading the facilities at the Sindh Agricultural University in Tandojam.

Another key measure for higher education approved for funding was the scholarship programme for lecturers at universities in economically deprived areas to study abroad, subject to the condition that they return to their sponsoring institution after graduation.

The government also wants to improve access to campuses for students with disabilities, though it is not clear if any money was allocated to modify campuses to allow for disabled student access.

As part of this year’s development budget, the CDWP approved spending Rs41.2 billion on 21 projects, with energy and other physical infrastructure dominating the list of approved projects, though six of the projects were in the higher education sector.

Some of the projects approved have European funding, such as the feasibility studies for the waste water treatment plants for Faisalabad (funded by France) and an education project funded by the German government. There are also several power sector projects for Balochistan, including the construction of grid stations in Dera Bugti and Sui, though it is unclear whether those projects would benefit the people of those districts or are meant to transport energy away from Balochistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2015.