A parliamentary committee on Wednesday recommended to federal government for setting up a public sector university in every district of the country to promote higher education and increase in funding for the fee reimbursement scheme to deserving students. The recommendations were made by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training during a meeting which was chaired by its Colonel Dr Amirullah Marwat (Retd).
The committee members visited the headquarters of Higher Education Commission (HEC) where the Commission's chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmad gave a comprehensive briefing on the various matters related to the Commission. The Chairman HEC briefed the committee about allocation of grants to public and private sector universities during 2015-16, proposed development projects of HEC in the PSDP for financial year 2016-17, Prime Minister's Fee Reimbursement Scheme for Less Developed Areas, Overseas Scholarship Scheme for MS, MPhil and PhD programmes, and steps taken for promotion of higher education in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
Referring to the HEC's recurring as well as development grants for 2015-16, and the development in universities across the country, particularly during last three years, he said that during 2015-16, Rs 2000 million were allocated for promotion of research, Rs 3000 million for tenure track system, Rs 625 million for Pakistan Education and Research Network, Rs 935 million for Digital Library, Rs 650 million for Inter University Academic Activities, Rs 450 million for Technical Assistance for Capacity Building, Rs 598 million for different university programmes, in addition to Rs 42.2 billion recurring grant for different categories of universities, including engineering, medical, agriculture and general.
He said HEC had formulated the draft PSDP 2016-17 proposals keeping in view the anticipated allocation of Rs 25 billion for its ongoing and new initiatives in line with Vision 2025 and government's priorities for socio-economic development of the country.
About the outcome of Fee Reimbursement Scheme, the HEC chairman said scheme covered tuition fee, admission, laboratory, registration, examination, library, and research related expenditure for MS/MPhil and PhD studies.
He said initially 59 districts were covered under the scheme, while currently students from 114 districts were benefiting from the initiative, adding that a total of 94,751 students had so far taken advantage from the scheme. Areas included under the scheme are all districts of Balochistan, whole of Fata and Gilgit-Baltistan, Southern Punjab, Interior Sindh, and selected districts of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, he added.
Terming HEC's overseas scholarship scheme for MS/ MPhil and PhD a flagship programme, Dr Mukhtar said that since its inception in 2002, the Commission had initiated various HRD scholarship programmes from undergraduate to PhD and post-doctorate level for development of human resource in different fields for socio-economic development of Pakistan. Referring to different programmes for research, he also highlighted HEC's zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism. He also briefed the members about international collaborations for promotion of higher education in the country.
Dr Mukhtar underscored the scope of Aghaz Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package and said that 600 scholarships including 200 overseas and 400 indigenous were being awarded to students from all districts of Balochistan. He said HEC was taking stringent steps for promotion of higher education in FATA, including establishment of a university, adding HEC scholarships were awarded in accordance with the quota prescribed by the government.
He added that specific programmes had been initiated for students hailing from less-developed areas of the country. He said HEC was encouraging universities through various initiatives to promote a research culture in the country. He maintained that different measures were afoot to strengthen academia-industry linkages so as to derive outcome of research carried out in universities.
Appreciating the scheme, the committee recommended that the funding for the fee reimbursement scheme should be doubled and the students of less developed areas who are studying outside their native districts be benefited of it so that they could meet the expenses.
The Committee also recommended that the recurring funds share of the public sector universities should be increased who have limited income resources. The committee further recommended to federal government/HEC to establish a university in every district to provide the higher education facility at the door steps and lessen the pressure of provincial head quarters public sector universities. Committee Chairman Dr Amirullah Marwat recognised the importance of various HEC programmes and assured HEC of the committee's complete support. He also assured HEC of the committee's support to take action against illegal campuses of universities. He directed the HEC for releasing parent/ student alerts after every three months to inform the masses about illegal universities, their campuses and programmes.
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