Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC), Dr Atta-ur-Rahman has said, HEC aims to provide the much needed impetus to the academia by offering indigenous as well as foreign PhD degrees to both faculty members and students.
Talking to PTV, Dr Atta said that it is well cognisant of the need for customising the existing scholarship programmes along with providing new opportunities for the pursuit of higher education at home and abroad. He said, HEC has designed the scholarship series. Scholarships are offered not only in reputable disciplines, but also in the less recognised but crucial emerging fields.
Under the scheme, students will be eligible for HEC scholarship for study in those universities and degree awarding institutions who, have adopted the HEC Quality Assurance Criteria for MPhil/PhD level studies.
He told that the priority areas for research include Engineering Sciences, Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, Information Technology, Basic Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, Health Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities. However, the scholarships are not restricted to specified areas and may also be awarded to scholars who wish to conduct research in any area not specified in the programme.
"Unless faculty is motivated to produce quality research, which leads to international patents and commercialisation, all other efforts for resource generation will work only to a limited extent."
He was of the view that all the universities should link the promotion of faculty members to their creativity as evident from their publications in leading international journals and their resourcefulness, and depicted by their ability to win research grants from international funding agencies.
The Chairman HEC identified four main pillars for resource generation as faculty members, university administration, government and the private sector, but added that faculty should be the centre of all these activities. He said, if the faculty produced quality work, they would win grants from funding agencies, thus, there was a need to encourage faculty and provide them maximum facilities. Dr Atta-ur-Rahman said that the Commission was not just putting emphasis on increasing quantity of higher educated persons, but also trying to ensure quality in the whole system of higher education.
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