Daily Times

In the higher education sector, most of the activities and matters are of academic nature whether it is teaching or research. Administrative support is always required to facilitate and provide support for academic and research ecosystem. The higher education institutions in the developed countries give weightage to the opinion of Professors in academic and research related matters, the administrative setup is responsible to manage resources in terms of funds, arrangements for events etc.

The situation in our case is quite different in most of the public sector Universities where decision making rests with head of the institution who is mostly supported by Administration setup who are not that much aware of developments taking place in different academic domains. It is whether proposal for student co-curricular activities or community engagement for awareness purpose on different social issues, the administrative staff mostly will not take owner ship of the event and will behave in bureaucratic manner. As HEIs are there to support community during different types of crisis as it has been practice and purpose of such institution therefore, regular events for arranging talks, presentations related to current issues is need of the hour.

As people are regularly going through different perspectives on different issues, in such environment there is a need to have educated version to avoid negative public opinion. The systematic approach to focus on single issue is very much required and it is not possible without involving academically and professionally qualified persons. Like rest of the developed where media houses take expert opinion on relevant issues, hence a professional approach is required in our part of the world as well. The HEIs in Pakistan are full of experts of different domains and they have years of experience in their areas of specialization. Their involvement is necessary to adopt right approach for addressing public issues as well as creating awareness about emerging challenges being faced by the society.

The HEC and Universities are also expected to apprise different government employing organizations at National and Provincial level for aligning their qualification requirement for various jobs recruited through these

The problem faculty members most of the times face is lack of enabling environment at HEIs where a laborious process is involved to organize an event. The role of HEIs has been limited to teaching only in majority of the cases. The staff of the Laboratories even requests researchers to conclude experiments as office time is over. Conducting research in such environment is difficult and expecting research contribution will be unwise from such institutions. In some cases, the administration is not willing to allow faculty members to have a public or social event with the help of sponsors. The arrangement of healthy debate within a campus will help students to develop patience, tolerance, and skills for listening along with arguing in professional manner. The increasing intolerance is because we do not hear our youth and try to impose our experiences over them. The importance of social skills as we are becoming part of global community. I remember once in an interview Prince Karim Agha Khan gave message for the youth to learn skills for becoming global citizen.

In this regard, Higher Education Commission has developed undergraduate policy which is circulated for implementation in the Universities. It is expected that students will learn core knowledge of basic disciplines along with comprehension, writing and analytical skills. The HEIs should start work on it for early implementation through statutory bodies. The institutional strategy is required at this point of time to properly roll out this policy without any implementation issues. The teachers need to be trained through HEC experts on the policy and peer discussions are also important. Content development for different programs is also a daunting task which need to be completed before announcing admissions. The spirit of the policy should be maintained through regular consultation with HEC and other stakeholders.

As this is completely new mode of earning qualification therefore, registration, admission and examination staff will need comprehensive training for the same. The queries and questions of students need to be addressed in professional manner. A handbook of the policy is need of the hour which may explain different options for earning credits with different arrangements in Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities. The roadmap of each qualification should be clear enough that novice can decide appropriate route without help.

The HEC and Universities are also expected to apprise different government employing organizations at National and Provincial level for aligning their qualification requirement for various jobs recruited through these. This will take systematic approach to develop a continuous communication channel among different stakeholders. The engagement of different scientific and social organizations for hosting internships for students will also be one of the major tasks for which organizations at local, regional, and national level should be engaged. The host organization may be offered share of the student tuition fee as internship would be counted against some credit hours. It will help in building strong relationship of Academia with these organizations and students will learn latest trends in their area or what are the skills required in the field apart from theoretical knowledge.

The writer is Dy. Director, Higher Education Commission