Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) briefed Akbar Hussain Durrani, Secretary, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training on the functions, powers, initiatives and achievements of HEC since its inception in 2002 during a meeting held here at the Commission Secretariat. The meeting was also attended by Dr Arshad Ali, Executive Director, HEC and senior management of the Commission, said a press release issued on Friday.
Talking to the Secretary, Dr Mukhtar shared the background of the HEC establishment and said that the HEC, earlier used to be University Grants Commission, was initially tasked to improve equitable access to higher education, ensure quality, and relevance of research to the country's needs.
He added that the HEC took a number of measures to accomplish its targets. He further said Pakistan had only 59 universities before 2002, while gross enrolment was only 2.6 percent. He maintained that the number of PhDs at that time was only 3,110 and only 800 research publications could surface from Pakistan. He revealed that the number of universities has now reached 188, whereas the gross enrolment is currently nine percent. He revealed that the country presently has 11,960 PhDs. He informed the Secretary that the female enrolment has increased from 32 percent in 2002 to 48 percent in 2017. The chairman underlined the core functions and powers of HEC, stating that various HEC divisions including Accreditation and Attestation, Human Resource Development, Research and Development, Travel Grants, Academics, Quality Assurance, Administration and Coordination, Information Tech and Planning and Development perform their respective assignments with professional efficiency and dedication.-PR
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.