ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal has directed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to include ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘export-led growth’ in course subjects, making them part of degree programmes in all universities to enhance the capacity of students.

A meeting was held under the chairmanship of Iqbal here in Islamabad on Thursday to discuss the performance audit framework and pending HEC initiatives.

Chairman HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmad and senior officials of the ministry were also present in the meeting while member S&T, Dr Najeeb Ullah briefed the forum on various ongoing and pending projects of the Science and Technology sector as well.

The federal minister urged the HEC to ensure quality standards in the higher education sector in light of the six parameters and associated KPIs for standardisation. These included: (i) Quality and impact of research and innovation, (ii) University-industry linkages, (iii) Technology enablement, (iv) Corporate governance, (v) Community service, and (vi) Graduate quality and employability.

The federal minister directed the concerned authorities to create corporate-level innovation labs in various universities and to provide all the facilities in the existing innovation labs.

During the meeting, projects related to science and technology under the PSDP were also deliberated in detail. The minister assured of all possible support related to the approval process and release of funds for the proposed projects.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023