HEC plans to accommodate cohort of university graduates

The Higher Education Commission (HEC), in collaboration with professional universities, is working on a plan to accommodate cohort of the universities' graduates through up-gradation of the standard of education.
This was stated by Vice Chancellor, NWFP University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani in an interview with Business Recorder. South Korea, he said, tops the accommodation of cohort where 68 percent graduates had access to employment after completion of their education while India has the capacity from 8 to 10 percent and Pakistan stood at 3 to 4 percent.
The University of Engineering and Technology (UET) NWFP is preparing a corps of market-oriented graduates, which after completion of their education would immediately joined the industrial sector and resolve the indigenous problems of the sector. For this purpose, the curricula had been made market-oriented to generate skilled manpower for development of the industrial sector of the country.
The university, he said, had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with small & medium enterprises development authority (Smeda) and also working with Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI). The Nissan company had also hired our graduates for their company.
The curricula of the university include subjects for promotion of communication skill to improve the writing and speaking skills and moreover promote professional ethics among the students of the institution. The curricula also include the courses on entrepreneurship to enable the students in finding employment sans difficulties.
The university, Gilani said, was also providing assistance to the provincial government regarding designing and selection of material in the reconstruction of buildings in the five earthquake affected districts of the Frontier province.
The vice chancellor said that the former governor Lieutenant General Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah (Retd) was interested in opening a campus of engineering university in Bajaur Agency. The matter was once taken up with the HEC. The establishment of the institution besides imparting education would play important role in the political as well as economic development and helped decline the negative trends in people of the area.
The engineering education, he said, continues to get the attention it deserves as the singularly important vehicle pulling Pakistan on a fast track of development. At the highest decision-making level, this paradigm has been bolstered by the announcement of six world-class engineering universities that will be built with collaboration of universities from an equal number of foreign countries. "One such university is planned for Peshawar, and we intend to play a key role in its planning and operationalisation," hinted Gilani.
About the future development projects, the Vice Chancellor Engineer Imtiaz Hussain Gilani said that the university in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC) was carrying 11 projects of Rs two billion.
He said that in the wake of October 2005 earthquake, the university took a lead in establishing Earthquake Engineering Centre (EEC) and with the financial assistance and keen interest of the latter a handsome amount of Rs 487.219 million was approved for strengthening of existing earthquake engineering center to develop into the Institute of Earthquake Engineering Seismology to be completed within a period of three years.
The project, he said also includes procurement of equipment worth Rs 380 million, human resource development worth Rs 85 million besides civil works and other small component of the project. The center, he said has already initiated several collaborative programmes with world leading earthquake engineering centers.
The university was also working on the plan of the establishment of National Institute of Urban Planning. The project, he informed would cost an amount of Rs 174.146 million and would be completed by the end of November of the current calendar year.
He disclosed that the provincial government of NWFP has approved site for the establishment of world class engineering university in collaboration with HEC. The government has approved the site at Mamoon Khatki, situated on Shabqadar-Peshawar Road. The university, he said will be part of six universities being established by HEC in collaboration with foreign countries including Germany, France, Sweden, Australia, Korea and Netherlands.
The project cost is estimated between Rs 15-20 billion and will be completed within a period of ten-year. The university is expected to house 5,000 students and will be run by South Koreans Consortium for ten years.
The University of Engineering & Technology, he further informed has planned to establish two campuses, one in Bajaur and another in Aurakzai with a cost of Rs 5 billion. The department of civil engineering, electoral engineering and basic sciences will be established in Bajaur campus and departments of mechanical engineering, mining engineering and basic sciences will be established at Aurakzai campus. A PC-I of estimated Rs 5 billion has been prepared. The project will take five years to complete.
The university, he said has also established widespread Internet set up for the university campuses costing Rs 35.359 million. The project would help to keep the students abreast with the recent overwhelming beat of Information Technology. The university will soon start its Internet facility for hostels so that student may get latest information at any time.