ISLAMABAD, Dec 29 (APP):The HEC’s Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP) project has been restructured to support some 14 worst flood-affected universities and institutes of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan with proposed allocation of Rs1.6 billion for their rehabilitation.
It was told during the meeting of HEDP’s steering committee, comprising senior officials from federal ministries, provincial higher education departments, vice-chancellors, and private sector representatives, here at the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Secretariat on Thursday, said an HEC news release.
HEDP is a five-year national project (2019/20 – 2023/24) implemented by the HEC to expand upon its key higher education priorities.
The committee meeting chaired by HEC Executive Director Dr Shaista Sohail reviewed the progress made so far on the project.
Project Coordinator Prof. Dr Mehmood ul Hassan Butt briefed the committee on the key project initiatives, including the physical and financial progress of all the 11 project indicators called as Performance-Based Conditions (PBCs).
Technical heads of the project components updated members on the progress of each of the six components of the project including 44 research grants awarded this year.
It was told that 15 Innovator Seed Funding (ISF) grants were also given to startups which were now being incubated in ORICs around Pakistan.
Moreover, HEDP was also in the process of finalizing MOUs for the establishment of Quality Enhancement Cells in Affiliated Colleges (QECACs) of 22 universities.”
It was further informed that the new Undergraduate Education Policy (UEP) had now been finalized incorporating the feedback from all the vice chancellors across Pakistan.”
The faculty of KP was already trained on the new UEP implementation while the plan for other provinces/regions would be rolled out very soon.
The IT component head of the project briefed members on the expansion of the Pakistan Education Research Network (PERN) in another 71 Higher Education Intuitions (HEIs), the development of the national MOOCs platform PaksitanEdX and the launch of Enterprise Resource Systems for 25 HEIs. “Bids have been reviewed and final decision will be made in January 2023.
Procurement processes for several national IT initiatives are also underway,” he added.
The lack of public funding for the higher education sector of Pakistan was discussed at length and allied mitigation strategies for revenue generation models and financial autonomy were proposed accordingly.
The members also explained the grim situation of higher education institutions, especially Affiliated Colleges (ACs), in their respective regions.
They also suggested customizing project activities based on regional needs and improving coordination between HEC and provincial departments for the national roll-out of activities.
