ISLAMABAD, May 12: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday assured government’s continued support to the higher education including the new engineering universities so as to make the country self-sufficient in science and technology sector.

The assurance was given at a briefing on the performance of the Higher Education Commission at the Prime Minister Secretariat.

The briefing was given by the Higher Education Commission chairman Ataur Rahman.

He said during the last five years 56 new universities were set up both in public and private sector, PhD enrolment grew by 300 per cent, PhD output doubled from 300 to about 600 per annum, and university student enrolment increased by 130 per cent whereas Pakistani professionals settled abroad are now returning to Pakistan in large numbers.

HEC has widely been criticised for what has been termed by political leaders and educationists as lavish spending without tangible results in the higher education.

The HEC chief said that enrolment ratio in educational institutions in Pakistan was 4 per cent which needed to be enhanced to 8 per cent.

Under an HEC foreign scholarship programmes 1000 students are being sent abroad annually to top universities in Europe, US and China.

He said due to change in salary structure, Higher Education Commission had been able to reverse the brain drain and a good number of expatriate scientists have been attracted to Pakistan.

He said establishment of the Pakistan education & research network, digital library, virtual university and IT strategy and that a good numbers of engineering universities are being established in various parts of the country with the collaboration of foreign countries.

The prime minister said 100 million people out of 165 million population are below the age of 25 which would be a great asset for the country by providing them professional education and necessary skills.

The Prime Minister said that the budget for education would gradually be increased to 4 per cent of GNP over the next three years whereas expenditure on higher education would also be increased to 30 per cent in the same period of time as per international norms.

The Prime Minister also instructed the concerned authorities to expedite provision of services like water, gas, electricity, sewerage lines, telephone to all those sites already allocated for establishment of the new universities of engineering, science and technology in collaboration with foreign countries.