Higher education: Private sector varsities urged to focus on quality, accessibility

Minister says global trends show access to higher education has improved


Our Correspondent November 25, 2015
Provincial Minister for Education Rana Mashhood. PHOTO: FACEBOOK

LAHORE:


The government is devising a monitoring mechanism to evaluate Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the province, Minister for Education Rana Mashhood said on Wednesday.


He was chairing a meeting with heads of 24 private sector universities and Higher Education Department (HED) Secretary Irfan Ali at Arfa Software Technology Park.

Mashhood said the government wanted to improve access to higher education but did not want to compromise on quality. He urged private sector institutions to contribute towards quality higher education. He said, “We should see global trends in the private sector education and how access to higher education has improved. We need to build a similar infrastructure in Pakistan”.

Ali told the meeting the department would support the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) to devise mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating private and public sector higher education institutions.

PHEC Chairman Nizamuddin said the objective of the meeting was to interact with private sector institutions and discuss quality of education and research in higher education.

“The PHEC will act as a platform for collaborative activities, training and capacity building of public and private sector higher education institutions,” he said.

Later, the education minister chaired a meeting of the Parents’ Action Committee (PAC) and Private Schools Owners Association (PSOA).

He told the meeting that schools would be authorised to make fixed annual increase in fees with regard to their assigned category.

Mashhood said private school owners did not have the permission to enhance fees arbitrarily.

He said that before the start of next educational year, categorisation of private schools will be completed. He said though the government wanted to resolve parents’ reservations.“But the government does not want to create hurdles in the development of private sector,” he said. He said the government had planned a number of public-private partnerships.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2015.

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