Daily Times

LAHORE: Higher Education Commission Chairman Professor Dr Tariq Banuri on Monday visited Lahore College for Women University, Government College University (GCU) and the Punjab University.

While visiting GCU, he said that the commission would approach the incoming government to create 15 slots for universities which would be granted autonomy and additional resources to be competitive with the top higher education institutions of the world.

However, the HEC chairman explained that, the issue of quality and autonomy are interrelated; universities would have to compete for these slots by assuring the commission that they have a transparent system of management in place to safeguard quality.

“The voice to protect quality should come for within the universities, not from outside and once this starts happening, there would be no need for anybody, nor HEC neither ministry, to keep a check,” HEC Chairman Professor Dr Tariq Banuri said.

Earlier, the chairman held a detailed meeting with GCU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Hassan Amir Shah and discussed different issues related to the funding and management of universities.

“I am happy that my tour to Lahore begins with the most prestigious higher education institution ie GCU, Lahore,” said the recently appointed HEC chairman while sharing his vision for higher education with the GCU’s academic and administrative heads.

HEC Chairman Dr Tariq Banuri asked universities not to start those academic programmes where they could not maintain quality, saying that these programs didn’t only affect students but also devalue the degree of the university.

The HEC chairman also hinted at reviewing degree attestation procedures in order to simplify them. He asked the university administration to groom their young faculty members to inculcate in them the leadership qualities.

Dr Tariq Banuri said he was going to ask the federal government for stable budgetary propositions for next five years, so that they could guarantee the universities their share and they could plan their development and expansion accordingly.

While addressing at PU, he called upon the need to allocate 1 percent of the Gross Domestic Product to higher education sector. He also addressed a meeting at Al Razi Hall. PU Vice Chancellor Professor Niaz Ahmad, heads of departments and Philosophy of Doctorate students were present on the occasion.

Dr Banuri said that HEC would launch policies to bring 15 Pakistani universities among top 500 world and top 100 Asian universities. He said that the autonomy of the universities would not be compromised. He said that HEC would work for increasing efficiency and using financial resources in a better way. He said that we need to establish transparent financial system for transparent use of funds as it was necessary to attract more funds. He said that HEC would form National Research Agenda for betterment of country, society and academia. He said that student-teacher ratio must be maintained for quality education and merit must not be compromised while making an appointment.

He said that HEC would make efforts to increase number of foreign faculty members and students in the universities. He urged the faculty members to do proper fund raisers and approach alumni for generating funds. He said that PU was the most prestigious university of the country and he was proud of being its graduate. Later, a lengthy question-answer session was held to address issues and improve higher education standard.

PU VC Niaz Ahmad thanked Dr Banuri for taking keen interest in resolving issues being faced by higher education departments. He said that academia believed in his leadership and “we hope that Dr Banuri would uplift the higher education sector in Pakistan”.

Published in Daily Times, July 31^st 2018.