PESHAWAR: Higher Education Commission chairman Dr Tariq Banuri on Monday said the commission was a national institution and therefore, it should not be made an issue of controversy among the federation and provinces.

“The federal and provincial authorities should strengthen HEC,” he told a function at the University of Peshawar on Monday.

Dr Tariq said higher education in Pakistan had brought deep cultural change in the society.

He said education was being imparted at a wide cross section of society, including the lower segments.

The HEC chairman said the youths taking up teaching jobs in universities showed their confidence in higher education and research, which was not the case in the past.

He lamented that only 300 candidates from across the country were able to qualify the Civil Superior Service examination, while the Pakistani faculty catching up with the US universities standards was below at par.

Dr Tariq also regretted the declining research standards, increasing

plagiarism cases, and dropping impact factors. He asked teachers to first acknowledge the existence of academic problems before trying to resolve them.

The HEC chairman said a new revolution in information technology would be seen at the higher education institutions through the introduction of the Campus Management Solution, Smart Wifi, Pern project and national database to be provided to the universities.

Earlier, Dr Tariq chaired a meeting about the involvement of all public sector universities in the HEC’s policy-level decisions and his roadmap for the commission.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2018