ISLAMABAD, April 21: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is still short of Rs60 billion needed to bring university education of the country on a par with international standards.

At present the country is spending Rs28 billion per year both on recurring and development budgets of all 60 public-sector universities, HEC Chairman Dr Attaur Rehman said while talking to this reporter.

About funds’ distribution among various sectors of education is concerned, Dr Rehman said according to international norms, for every 2.5 dollars spent at the lower level, one dollar was utilised at the higher level. Thus expenditure at the lower level should only be two to three times more than that at the higher education level.

However, in Pakistan, expenditure at the lower level education is about seven to eight times higher than at the higher education level so the country still needs to have at least a three-fold growth of budget in the higher education sector to bring it on par with international standards.

“In short we should be receiving Rs90 billion for the higher education sector instead of present Rs28 billion,” the chairman argued.

He said the country was witnessing a complete turn around in its higher education sector with scores of opportunities both for teachers and students to improve their academic credentials.

Dr Attaur Rehman, who took over the HEC since its inception in 2002, believed that there was no dearth of capacity in the country and with target-oriented policies, its higher education institutions would soon be competing in the world market.

The HEC programmes have been termed a ‘silent revolution’ by the World Bank in their recent report. However, he said, “there are elements in the country that are working for ‘foreign masters’ against this whole effort in the higher education sector. We need to be wary of this group which is creating the illusion that too much is being spent on higher education. In fact far too little money is being spent on the higher education sector of the country”.

In comparison, if one looks at just one good university in the Far East, such as National University of Singapore, one will find that their budget this year alone is over $800 million.

Over the last few years the commission has taken a number of measures which helped improve varsity education in the country. These steps include increase in salary structures for faculty members under the Tenure Track System. Universities now have access to a nationwide digital library and there is a massive programme to attract foreign faculty back to Pakistan.

Previously the country used to get about 20-30 scholarships offered by Britain or some other countries and students used to go abroad on these scholarships, the chairman said.

However a policy decision was taken that it is not a job of the US or European countries to train Pakistani students. “We must invest in our children and so we have already sent 1,200 students abroad for studies at top universities in Europe and the US from our own funds,” Dr Rehman said.

The HEC is planning to send an additional 1,000 students this year alone. A Rs15 billion programme has been approved to send 2,000 students abroad to strengthen local universities. These students will start to come back in about one to two years and then major changes will become apparent.

Supporting his argument of quality research being done in higher education institutions of the country, Dr Ata said there had been a spectacular 330 per cent growth in research publications in universities of Pakistan over the last four years. Just between December 2005 and December 2006 there has been a 47 per cent growth in international research publications abstracted by Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) Philadelphia, USA, carried out by Pakistani researchers.