Daily Times

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has committed to enhancing women leadership in higher education sector, knowing the fact that they constitute a major part of faculty across all higher education institutions in Pakistan but their representation in senior roles remains limited.

Realizing this, three years ago, HEC initiated Women Leadership Programme under its project Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP), said a press release on Tuesday.

HEDP is strengthening HEC’s National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE) on various fronts – the Women Leadership Program is one of these key initiatives. Under the Women Leadership Program a total of 161 women leaders have already been trained across Pakistan in all the four major provinces.

The program equipped female academic and non-academic staff on governance in higher education, recruitment policies, managing work-life balance, gender and workplace communication, public procurement rules, financial management and strategic communication.

The program also provided personal and professional development opportunities and exposes participants to international best practices in women’s leadership.

The alumni of the program have made significant progress in their career moving up in the ladders, with one of the alumni is now a Vice Chancellor of the Shaheed Allah Baksh Soomro University of Arts, Design and Heritage, Jamshoro, which is one of the co-education public sector universities of Sindh.

As the HEDP project is attaining its maturity, HEC decided to sustain this initiative and develop women mentors who via a cascading model to train and develop other women leaders in academic sector empowering more female employees in the universities of Pakistan.

Named as Women Empowerment and Mentoring Program (WEMP), it would also help in fostering leadership development and offering essential support for achieving a healthy work-life balance.

By providing mentorship from senior leaders in higher education, the program continues to help them build networks, advocate for their interests, and advance their careers.

This program is in its final stage of development. The WEMP committee was notified in June this year and its first meeting was held on June 24, 2024. Up till now, it has held seven meetings and the recent consultative session was the last meeting to finalize its modalities.

HEC after a day-long consultative session with the experts finalized the draft for WEMP. The final session was chaired by Ms. Noor Amna Malik, Managing Director NAHE, and attended by a panel of experts including Prof. Dr. Anwar Ul Hassan Gilani, Consultant (Quality Assurance) HEC; Prof. Dr. Saima Hamid, former Vice Chancellor of Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU); Prof. Dr. Arabella Bhutto, Vice Chancellor of Shaheed Allah Baksh Soomro University of Arts, Design and Heritage, Jamshoro; Prof. Dr. Wasima Shehzad Dean Air University, Dr. Afshan Tehseen Former Chairperson National Commission on the Rights of Child, Islamabad and Tahir Abbas Zaidi, Program Coordinator NAHE.

With the support of HEDP for WEMP, HEC envisions supporting aspiring women leaders in HEC as well as in HEIs and setting examples to follow for the women who happen to be about 50 percent of Pakistan’s population. This would be a significant step towards empowering women in academia and ensuring their professional growth. The experts have developed a comprehensive mentoring program, including modules on communication, conflict management, mentoring, and higher education challenges.

First of its kind in academic sector, it would be a 3-month pilot program having a structured approach to be followed by mentors and mentees to help mentees achieve their professional aspirations. This mentorship program will initially be rolled out in selected universities as a pilot program and upon successful review, it will be made a permanent feature in all HEIs through a policy intervention by HEC.

It is hoped that initiatives like these will significantly accelerate the representation of women in leadership positions within higher education in Pakistan thereby contributing towards national development. Moving forward, HEC plans to sustain it by making it a permanent feature in all HEIs through a policy intervention.

HEDP is a 400 million USD flagship project of HEC aimed to support research excellence in strategic sectors of the economy, improve teaching and learning, and strengthen governance in higher education. To learn more about the project, please visit the HEDP section on HEC website.