Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, Rana Tanveer Hussain Wednesday emphasized the policies to promote skill-based education in the universities in order to equip Pakistani youth with the skill set required to address current and future challenges. He was addressing a ceremony arranged by Higher Education Commission (HEC) to confer the Best University Teacher Awards for the year 2021 upon the outstanding faculty members of Pakistani universities in three categories. The minister also stressed the need for paying special attention to producing quality PhDs and creating job opportunities for them. Rana Tanveer Hussain highlighted the importance of encouraging and incentivising teachers to promote quality education and research. He stated that teachers were the role models for the future generations, as they play a key role in nation-building and character-building of youth. Appreciating NAHE for its efforts to build capacity of university leadership, faculty and staff, he stressed the need for more effective measures to provide teachers with training opportunities. Speaking on the occasion, Chairperson HEC Dr. Shaista Sohail highlighted the significance of teachers’ role for development of the higher education institutions, and how the higher education sector plays a pivotal role in the socio-economic development of any country. She informed the gathering about efforts that HEC had been continuously making for overall growth of the higher learning institutions, be it human resource development, quality assurance, physical and technological development, research and innovation, industrial liaison, entrepreneurship and other areas, she said. Announcing the winners of Best University Teacher Award 2021, Advisor (Academics, Accreditation and National Academy of Higher Education — NAHE) Engr. Muhammad Raza Chohan said that knowledge was the key driver for socio-economic development of a country. He said that HEC was cognizant of the teachers role in transforming the country into a knowledge-based economy. He underlined that HEC received 57 nominations for the Best University Teacher Award 2021 from 243 public and private universities. And, he added, a rigorous process was adopted to select the Best University Teachers 2021. Dr. Syed Asghar Naqi, Professor, King Edward Medical University (KEMU), Lahore, Dr. Farah Naz Baig Assistant Professor Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi and Momin Ayub Uppal Associate Professor Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) have won the Best University Teacher Award in the category of Life Sciences and Medicine, Social Sciences and Humanities and Physical Sciences and Engineering respectively. A large number of Vice Chancellors, faculty members, and students attended the ceremony.