ISLAMABAD, June 22: The Higher Education Commission's Departmental Development Working Party has approved a project worth Rs30 million to establish department of economics at the Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology.

With the setting up of the department, the university will start offering MSc, MPhil and PhD programmes, an official statement said. The project is part of the overall development programme of economics, finance and business management to help meet the dearth of qualified manpower in the country.

The main objective of the scheme is to provide facilities of teaching and research in economics and finance at specialized level. It is hoped that the through the scheme, 25 to 30 MSc, 10 to 15 MPhil and 10 to 15 PhD scholars will be produced in the field of economics and finance every year.

It will also help undertake research studies and surveys in economics and offer consultancy services to the public sector institutions, organizations and other related government agencies.

The project will not only provide educational facilities to students in the fields of economics and finance at Masters, MPhil and PhD levels, but also produce qualified people to help establish infrastructure for economic development at the national level.

Under the scheme, teachers for economics department will be selected on the basis of their academic performance. They will not only teach the students at Masters level, but also take BBA and MBA classes.