ISLAMABAD: The governing body of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has requested provincial authorities to share the burden of providing funds to universities.

Presiding over the meeting, HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed welcomed the newly-appointed members of the commission and briefed them about HEC’s objectives, functions, achievements and challenges, says a press release issued on Tuesday.

Sources said during the meeting, the members said except Sindh, the other three provinces were not providing adequate funding to provincial universities, which, besides approval of 18th Constitutional Amendment, were still dependent on federal government funding.

The meeting also directed the HEC to complete the process of appointing the HEC executive director as soon as possible, preferable within one week as the ED, who acts as principal accounting officer, was a highly important position but the seat was lying vacant for years.

For the last few years, the office of ED was being run through ad-hoc arrangements. The commission was told that after the competitive process, candidates had been shortlisted and their interviews would be conducted within a week’s time.

Meanwhile, the press release said the meeting emphasised on prioritising and realigning strategic direction of the higher education sector to the national needs and impact for the socio-economic development of the country. The commission also deliberated upon the provision of recurring grant to new universities/HEIs and approved the HEC recurring and development allocations for the current financial year 2023-24 and revised estimates for 2022-23.

The commission revived its standing committees constituted under different thematic areas related to Quality Assurance and Programme Accreditation, Academics, Human Resource, Finance and Audit, and agreed to frequently meet to catalyse policy work, and strengthen the higher education sector based on academic excellence, good governance and financial sustainability.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2023