Higher Education Commission
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Higher Education Commission (HEC), formerly the University Grant Commission, is an organization that facilitates the development of higher educational system in Pakistan[1]. Its main purpose is to upgrade the Universities of Pakistan to be world-class centres of education, research and development.
The HEC is also playing a leading role towards building a knowledge based economy in Pakistan by giving out hundreds of doctoral scholarships for education abroad every year.
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[edit] HEC Programs and Projects
HEC main programs are following:
- Faculty development
- Curriculum revision
- Higher education infrastructure development
- Indigenous scholarships [2][3]
- Forign scholarships [4][5]
- Patent filing support [6]
- Conference travel grants [7]
- Increase industry and university research collaboration
- Developing new technology parks
[edit] Information Technology Reforms
Primary focus of HEC is higher Education development however recently HEC has begun information technology reforms (called e-reforms) while it claims to improve situation of social sector primarily reduction in poverty and challenges of economic stability. Main E-forms programs are following:
- Pakistan Educational Research Network (PERN)
- Digital Library
- Pakistan Research Repositor (PRR)
- e-learning
[edit] Criticism
HEC projects are sometime criticized, government of Pakistan has allocated significant amount of funds to HEC and also has been increasing HEC budget (annually) since the organization itself converted from a formal organization name "University Grant Commission" or UGC
- Reforms? What reforms?” by Pervez Hoodbhoy Professor of Nuclear Physics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. (The News July 7th 2005)
- Reforming Pakistan’s Universties by Pervez Hoodbhoy January 4, 2005
- Dubious universities and the future of higher education in Pakistan, by Q. Isa Daudpota The author lives in Islamabad he is environmentalist he also has interest in system dynamics and nonlinear mathematics.
[edit] Achievements
Inspite of the criticism of HEC, its creation has also had a positive impact on higher education in Pakistan. In their two year report for 2004 to 2006 it is mentioned that according to the Insitute of Scientific Information, the total number of publications appearing in the 8,000 leading journals indexed in the web of Science arising out of Pakistan in 2005 was 1,259 articles, representing a 41% increase over the past two years and a 60% increase since the establishment of HEC in 2002. In addition the HEC digital library now provides access to over 20,000 leading reserach journals, covering about 75% of the worlds peer reviewed scientific journals.
The HEC website also points to a 40% increase in enrollment in univeristies in Pakistan over the last two year, which it attributes to efforts on its part to encourage higher education in the country.
