ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday said the Higher Education Vision 2025 will soon be announced.

Speaking at an interactive discussion on Higher Education Vision 2025 at Higher Education Commission secretariat the minister said the country needed to keep pace with the modern world by re-aligning its educational structure and bringing in dynamism in knowledge and introducing multi-disciplinary subjects.

The minister also shared targets set so far under the Higher Education Vision 2025. He said the universities should concentrate on six indicators envisaged under the vision.

He said that government was planning to establish an academy to promote social sciences in the country. The focus from STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) has now shifted to STEAM [science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics] subjects, he added.

The minister also said that 10,000 Pakistani scholars will be sent to the United States for study in the next 10 years under the US-Pakistan Knowledge Corridor.

“It is unavoidable for every task to revolve around knowledge in order to ensure human progress,” he maintained.

Earlier, in his opening remarks Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed said that HEC had aligned its goals with the government’s Vision 2025.

He revealed that the number of higher education institutions had reached to 180 in the country, while the ratio of enrolment in universities has increased over the years without any compromise on quality.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2016