LAHORE, Sept 6: Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool has said the Punjab University's Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC) should be converted into a Centre for Faculty Development to serve the northern Punjab.

The governor was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the national faculty development programme conducted by the PU's HRDC on the New Campus on Monday.

The governor said the universities must establish a link with society and industry to make education more need-oriented. He said the universities were required to act in a multiple way rather than narrow-based manners.

Mr Maqbool said a good teacher was a reservoir of knowledge and proper training enabled him to transfer his knowledge and experience to students in an effective way.

Speaking on the occasion, Higher Education Commission's quality assurance advisor Dr Riazuddin Qureshi said the commission would soon declare the HRDC as a Centre for Faculty Development.

PU Vice-Chancellor Arshad Mahmood commended the governor's efforts for taking personal interest in promoting higher education by forming a chancellor's committee to review the performance, allocation of sufficient funds for launching new programmes and scholarships, initiating reform agenda and up-dating the curriculum.

He said the university had developed faculty development boards with a vision to enable a student to conduct research of national and international needs. Mr Mahmood said the university had adopted a transparent method in the selection of teachers.

He said the PU organized 160 selection board meetings during the last five years and selected 429 teachers. He said it was for the first time that the newly recruited teachers were being asked to undergo pre-service and in-service training.

HRDC Director Prof Dr Zafar Iqbal Jadoon said the centre was conducting this programme as a goodwill gesture for major universities in the country. He said all 45 participants of the programme, including the newly recruited teachers at the university, were being offered free of cost training.

He said the centre had been conducting faculty development programmes for the PU and over 70 public and private sector universities had contacted to send nominations for this programme.

Later, the governor visited applied psychology and English language and literature departments and inspected their classrooms and libraries.