August 09, 2006	Wednesday	Rajab 13, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 8: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Tuesday unveiled the eligibility criteria for public-sector universities to receive funding from the commission.

Speaking at a meeting of vice-chancellors and rectors of the institutions with senior HEC officials on quality assurance issues, the commission’s executive director, Dr Sohail Naqvi, said credible private-sector universities would be funded by the commission.

He said HEC’s common aim was to ensure quality education, adding that it was critical to provide sustainability to our efforts and ensure a long-term partnership between private-sector universities and the HEC.

It is, therefore, important to blur the line between public and private-sector universities, Mr Naqvi elaborated while presenting an overview of the steps taken to promote quality education.

Sharing the measures with heads of private-sector institutions, he invited them to adopt the quality assurance procedures and guidelines developed by the HEC.

He also stressed the need to define mechanism of formal interaction with the HEC to cover issues and get their viewpoint across to the commission.

It was further decided in the meeting that for a university to be eligible for HEC funding, the university must be not for profit and at least 70 per cent of the courses must be taught by full-time faculty members.

It would also be essential for the university to meet the cabinet criteria for establishment of university or institute with respect to building, faculty, teacher-student ratio, internet connectivity, extra curricular activities, etc.

The institution should follow established accounting procedures and possess a mechanism for providing funding to needy students.

On fulfilment of the criteria, universities in the private sector will be eligible to receive research grant after its proposals are accepted on merit, while a matching grant of 50 per cent will be available from the HEC to hire foreign faculty through the Foreign Faculty Hiring Programme.

Matching grant will also be available for digital library access to selected journals and international bandwidth for internet access.

Funding to private sector universities will be encouraged especially in those areas where public-sector universities have no capacity or facilities to undertake specific research activities.

The project proposals or feasibility studies will be submitted by private-sector universities to the HEC to be determined by standing committee comprising Planning Commission, Finance Division and the Higher Education Commission.

In this regard, the HEC will devise regular monitoring system on periodic basis to ensure proper utilisation of grants by the institutions.

It will be possible to gain land for establishment of new university on lease for specified purpose of education on the condition that infrastructure for the institution will be established within a specified period of time and any assets on it will revert to the government if the purpose of land acquisition is not met.

The meeting stressed the need for funding opportunities for research that required a cultural change at public as well as private-sector universities and both must work in harmony for uplift of quality in education.

Meanwhile, the meeting also decided that a regular mechanism of formal interaction between the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and public-sector universities would be defined to create a line of communication between the two.