12 April 2004	Monday	21 Safar 1425

KARACHI, April 11: The Higher Education Commission has so far invited 67 qualified and experienced experts from abroad to teach at various Pakistani public sector varsities, a senior official of the commission disclosed.

At a press briefing held on Saturday, HEC member Dr Sohail Naqvi said that of the 67 people offered jobs at local varsities, 10 had already assumed their duties in the country, while others would be joining different institutions soon.

He said that the hired foreign teachers were mostly Pakistanis, who had been working abroad, adding that teachers were also being hired from Russia, Rumania and Ukraine. He said that foreign teachers were being provided to only those varsities which had already applied for the same.

He stated that the HEC had planned to hire about 300 foreign teachers in a span of five years, who would be paid $3,000 to $4,000 each, per month. He said that the foreign faculty hiring scheme was introduced by the HEC as a part of its faculty support programme, whereas a number of public sector universities lacked the trained faculty in some disciplines, including Mathematics, Bio-technology and Engineering.

Replying to newsmen's queries, Dr Naqvi said that the HEC had no foreign donors, including the World Bank, and its agenda, reforms and plans were aimed at enhancing the quality of education and research in Pakistani institutions of higher learning.

We, in general, were focusing on programmes which catalyzed the development of knowledge-based economy in the country, he added, saying that HEC's development projects were of industrial and economic relevance.

He said that the HEC realized that faculty was the heart and soul of higher education system and therefore majority of its programmes pertained to bring qualitative and quantitative improvement in teaching.

In past the social science sector had been neglected, but now we were focussing on that sector as well and as a policy matter 30 per cent of the scholarships and research grants had been allocated to social sciences, he added.

He said that in addition to making significant increase of up to Rs5 billion on development side, there had been an increase of 50 per cent in the recurring budgets of all public sector varsities during 2003-2004, while another 50 per cent increase was due in the next financial year.

He said that the HEC had also launched a digital library programme, under which researchers within public and private universities in the country would gain access to over 11,000 online international academic journals from some of the world's top publishing houses.

In regard to introduction of a four year bachelor degree programme, he said that it was aimed not only at raising the standard of the degree, but at ensuring a wholesome education for our graduates, instead of providing them a narrow-based education.

However, he added that the HEC did not want to impose the four-year programme on emergency basis, but universities were free to adopt that gradually, keeping in view their faculty and infrastructure.