HEC: THE NEXT TEN YEARS BY LAGHARI
COMMENTS;
This is for Action research Forum of public wisdom.
HEC inapt chief’s Figment of Imagination (مجذوپ کی پڑ), after grounding country’ economic system and harness corruption, now the turn to spoil higher education. What a satire it is? Those who have no absolute credibility now proclaiming the future, neither they could be there nor the fruits. GOD SAVE HEC.
WE PROPOSE TO CALL HEC AS LEC (LAGHARI EDUCATION COMMAND)
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HEC: THE NEXT TEN YEARS BY LAGHARI
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-147565-HEC-the-next-10-years
HEC: the next 10 years
HEC: the next 10 years
Dr Javaid R LaghariMonday, December 10, 2012
From Print Edition
From Print Edition
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Universities in Pakistan have rapidly morphed into their new role as producers of knowledge and research that lead to innovation and entrepreneurship, create employment, and be prime builders of a knowledge economy.
The HEC continues to amaze the world with its achievements and accomplishments despite being only ten years young. Despite cuts in funding and limited resources, it has continued to achieve and focus on faculty development, quality education, technology readiness and research and innovation, which are key winning formulae in creating a knowledge economy.
The economic prosperity of a country is directly related to the higher education enrolment per capita. Knowledge and skills have thus become the global currency of the 21st century economies, but there is no central bank that prints this currency. Countries will have to decide for themselves how much they want to print, which will set their future course of social and economic prosperity.
The return on investment in higher education is estimated to be 400 percent. Hence countries with the highest enrolment densities in higher education enjoy the highest GDP per capita, visible examples being countries without natural resources: Finland, Ireland, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. On the other hand, countries with the lowest enrolment densities are the least economically prosperous, which include countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
As per the Education Policy 2008, the HEC targets to increase accessibility to higher education from the current 8 percent to 15 percent by 2020, which translates into an increase in university enrolment from 1m to 2.3m. This is a major challenge tied to the funding situation. However, to achieve the best results effectively, in addition to establishing new campuses, the HEC is focusing on the use of educational technologies and through the recently established directorates of distance education.
One of the biggest challenges, however, will be to have improved quality of learning with this large increase in enrolment. This is being simultaneously achieved through faculty learning programmes, through the Quality Enhancement Cells and Accreditation Councils.
Faculty development programmes are the mainstay of the HEC. With over 7500 scholars currently pursuing their PhD degrees both within and outside the country, and an additional 2,200 having graduated and placed at universities and other organisations, it is estimated that with the projected growth in universities, at least 16,000 ‘additional’ PhD faculty will be required by 2020.
This will raise the percentage of the PhD faculty from the current 22 percent to 40 percent. Simultaneously, the standards for faculty appointment will become stringent. Starting in 2014, all lecturer appointments will require a MPhil/MS degree, and from 2016, all assistant professors and above will require a PhD degree.
There will be continued emphasis on good governance. The Institutional Performance Evaluation has been recently developed by the HEC with eleven standards, and is on a pilot test run across select universities. By the end of 2014, all universities will be required to meet a certain minimum standard. The feedback will assist the university leaders in ensuring good governance. Better selection of vice chancellors (VCs) is also being ensured by the HEC policy of appointing them through search committees, and for their continued appointment, evaluating performance on a yearly basis based on criteria currently under development.
The VCs understand that their new challenges include leadership skills, academic leadership, financial management, strategic planning, fundraising and building economies, communities and leadership. Last year, the HEC introduced a two-day leadership workshop for all newly appointed VCs.
There has been a significant growth in the number and quality of the PhDs awarded. The number of PhDs awarded per year has increased to over 850 in 2011, with significantly higher standards. It is estimated that over 2400 PhDs will be awarded in 2020, which will give Pakistan the same competitive advantage in research and innovation as is available to China, India, Turkey and Malaysia.
The number of research publications out of Pakistan has gone up by 50 percent in the last two years alone. Scimago, an independent database, has projected that Pakistan will have the second-highest growth in the Asiatic region, moving up 16 notches from the current worldwide ranking of 43 to 27.
Offices of innovation, research and commercialisation, centres of advanced study and research in energy, food security, and water resource, incubators and technology parks are being established to link research and innovation with industry.
Ranking of all universities will continue every year, enabling the universities in identifying their weaknesses, as well as building on their strengths, so as to compete and be ranked globally.
This is already beginning to pay off, as today more than six Pakistani universities are ranked among the top 300 universities of the world, while there were none a few years ago. By 2015, we expect at least 10 universities to be in the top 300, with one in the top 100.
All HEC reforms are becoming the envy of other countries in the region. While Turkey already has a similar commission, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are in the process of replicating the HEC model, and India is going a step further and establishing a supra-HEC with far-reaching consequences to position itself as a regional leader.
The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report indicators on higher education and training, technology readiness and innovation are showing a consistent improvement over the last three years for Pakistan, much more than many other countries, which is clear proof that higher education reforms are paying off.
Moving ahead, however, will require proportionate financial resources beyond the meagre 2.3 percent of the GDP that Pakistan currently spends on education, with only 0.2 percent going to higher education. Unesco recommends that developing countries should spend a minimum of 6 percent on education.
Pakistan has achieved critical mass and reached a point of take-off. For this phenomenal growth to continue, it is important for the government and other stakeholders to support and further strengthen the HEC as a national institution and protect its autonomy. If this momentum continues for another 10 years, Pakistan is certain to become a global player through a flourishing knowledge economy and a highly literate population.
The writer is chairperson of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Email: jlaghari@hec.gov.pk
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SHARE WITH FRIENDS WISDOM POSTINGS:
- CAUSE AND EVENTS – SPATIAL And TEMPORAL RESPECTIVELY
- WHETHER ‘BRAIN-POWER’ OR ‘HEART-IMPULSE’ PLINTHS ‘HUMAN GEN’?
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