ISLAMABAD: Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Rana Tanveer Hussain, while emphasising the need for investment in human capital, has said that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) can play a critical role in developing human resources in the country.

The minister said this after inaugurating the PhD Country Directory (PCD) Online System at the HEC here on Tuesday. Hussain termed the launch of the PCD Online System commendable and hoped that the development will benefit the PhD scholars in a hassle-free manner.

He highlighted the importance of employing technology in institutional operations to make processes easier for the public. The minister stated that the development of higher education and marketable, need-based research is the key to progress and prosperity of a nation. He advised the universities to establish special on-campus setups for promotion of skill-based education.

He urged the universities to enhance financial discipline, engage with industry, encourage entrepreneurship, and turn Offices of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation (ORICs) into earning entities.

HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said that the HEC will soon automate all of its functions and processes to facilitate students, faculty and general public, adding that the HEC degree verification system will be synched with the Nadra database to make attestation easier.

The objective of this concept is to improve efficiency, improve quality, and better facilitate people, he underscored. He urged the vice chancellors to help the HEC expedite the delivery of services to the academic community and students.

He said that the HEC is committed to ensuring the delivery of services to the nation in the best possible way.

In her opening remarks, Dr Shaista Sohail asserted that the inauguration of the PCD Online System, within a short period of only three months, will accelerate the registration of PhDs as currently, 29,300 PhDs are part of the PCD data.

Director General Ghulam Nabi shared a detailed presentation on a comparison between the conventional PCD launched in 2009 and the flagship PCD Online System. He informed the audience that HEC trained over 300 focal persons of universities on the new PCD System and received feedback from universities for incorporation.

He said HEC HEDR, while heading towards a paperless environment, will announce the launch of the Online Data Collection System; Online Ranking System; Data warehousing and Analytics; and Statistical Booklet in the next few months.

The online system can be accessed through, https://eservices.hec.gov.pk/#/pcd, the HEC’s conventional PCD setup has been automated to improve efficiency in the PCD registration process of PhD scholars in Pakistan.

The ceremony was attended by Chairman HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Executive Director HEC Dr Shaista Sohail, vice chancellors of different universities, and a large number of PhD scholars.

The PCD Online System, developed by HEC Higher Education Data Repository with the help of Information Technology (IT) and other Divisions, will enable inclusion of Pakistani PhDs in the HEC data, through university focal persons, within a few days without submission of documents or applications in the hard form. Earlier, the PCD processes involving five stages took a PhD scholar several months to be part of the registered PhD community of Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023