A spokesman Higher Education Commission (HEC) has stated that the institution has not become bankrupt, however it is facing severe difficulties over scarcity of funds.
He also reiterated that already enrolled scholarship programmes will be completed on priority basis and HEC will facilitate the students with scholarships, who are getting educations in foreign varsities on HEC’ s expenses.
The Higher Education Commission has constituted a representative body to institute prompt coordination mechanism between business institutes of the country for effective improvement the education standards and ensuring quality of education in business and related disciplines.
The decision was taken at a special sitting of Business Education Accreditation Council (BEAC) of [...]
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HEC has finally announced its bankruptcy and declared that they are unable to further fund any of the public universities even for the regular day to day affairs. An email has been sent to all public universities VCs pointing the reasons that federal government has denied the funding and HECs own accounts are dried up. Further to this World Bank has also denied any kind of funding for the promotion of higher education in the country. Therefore all public universities are advised to turn toward private sector and philanthropist for the provision of running expenses and salaries of teachers and staff.
Islamabad, Jan 29: The limited capacity of attestation department of Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the disrespectful behaviour of its staff are a constant source of anxiety for the students who come from different parts of the country to get their degrees attested.
Only two counters for males and females each have been set up and people wait for hours in long queues for their turn. Even there is no separate counter for senior citizens and they are also ill-treated. “Nearly 500 people arrive to attest their degrees daily while the commission only cater 150 people a day. Tokens are issued to the students but there is no use for that as the order is not maintained while making the queues,” said Syed Mubashir Nazeer, a student, complaining about the poor service of the staff.
“One of the major problems for students is that only those are entertained who arrive between 0800 to 1100 hours. Those who reach late are not even allowed to enter the premises of the commission no matter how far they have come from and where they would stay at night. Timings are also not mentioned anywhere at the website,” he maintained.
The attestation of degrees, transcripts and diplomas awarded by the certified universities and degree awarding institutions of Pakistan, both in public and private sector, was transferred to the HEC by the government in May 2000. The HEC is also the sole regulatory body of higher education in the country entrusted with the job to determine the equivalence and recognition of degrees, diplomas and certificates awarded by institutions within the country and abroad, which is done by the same department.
But the officials of the HEC believe that the centralised system of attestation is necessary to avoid the chances of any fraud and ensure the grant of genuine degrees. The facility of courier service has also been started by the commission for the students. The degrees and transcript can also be attested through courier service and there is no need to come personally to the headquarter of the commission. But people hardly go for that service fearing that their original documents could be lost through this and prefer to do it personally. The Nation
Islamabad, Jan 15: Higher Education Commission (HEC) has planned to soon initiate online verification of degrees of students intending to visit abroad for further education. This was stated by Member Operations and Planning HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmad.
The commission would verify degrees and certificates of students intending to get admissions abroad, in Pakistani universities or for getting jobs through online procedure, he said.
He admitted that the recent raise in degree and certificate attestation fee is causing financial burden on people coming from far flung areas. But the commission is compelled to increase attestation fee due to financial reasons, he said.
In 2002, he said there was no fee for attestation as it was not the requirement at that time.
Thousands of people were visiting the commission for attestation of their degrees even when they didn’t need it. Majority came at the last moment without proper documents creating hurdles for the staff.
Now after increase in charges, he said the staff would get genuine applicants who really need attestation.
Referring to the reasons of non-release of HEC funds, he said it is not only happening in HEC but in other organisations and institutions across the country due to prevailing financial crunch.
The recurring budget has been issued but the development budget is yet to be released by finance ministry. In the first quarter, HEC got 15 per cent of the total budget, 7.5 per cent in the second but the third phase has been delayed which has caused shortfall.
As many as 4,000 students studying abroad are unable to meet study expenditures due to delay in funds. Various institutes are facing such difficulties but the issue will be resolved soon, he said. The News
Islamabad: Despite the instructions of the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, the Finance Ministry has been unable to grant timely and full release of allocated funds to the Higher Education Commission (HEC), thus disobeying the orders of the chief executive of the country.
The premier had issued these directives along with other orders to the Finance Ministry at a presentation by the HEC. A presentation was given by the Higher Education Commission to the Prime Minister on May 12, 2008 at the PM’s House wherein he had directed for the restoration of a cut of Rs. 5 billion made in the recurring grant of the financial year of 2007-08 for universities and sustain the recurring budget requirement of Rs. 23 billion for the financial year 2008-09.
The Finance Ministry was also asked that it should make releases of development and recurring budget of fourth quarter on priority basis. The prime minister had directed that Foreign Ministry and its Missions abroad should make concerted efforts to secure additional funding for higher education.
But despite the directives of the head of the state, the Finance Ministry remained unmoved and the budget cut of 5 billion rupees that was being imposed on the Commission in the last financial year could not be released.
Though the government released the recurring budget of first and second quarter of this financial year but in case of development budget, the Commission received only 15 per cent in the first quarter and 7.5 per cent in the second quarter.
It is worth mentioning here that the government released the development as well as recurring grant of the second quarter in the last month of the quarter with the delay of two months.
The unexpected cut in the Commission’s budget badly affected the universities which had no savings and even the salaries for the months of April and May 2008 had been paid after withdrawing money from Pension Funds, Students Fund, Reserve Fund and taking loans from banks.
The universities have been protesting against the situation as they have gone bankrupt.
The delay in the release of funds also caused difficulties for the students studying abroad under the foreign scholarship programmes of the HEC.
“Finance Ministry has been simply denying releasing the funds allocated to HEC. We are treated as if we are the enemies of the country. It seems that a conspiracy has been hatched up against the higher education sector of the country,” said a senior official of the Commission requesting anonymity. The Nation
Chairperson higher education commission announced that due to unavailability of funds the first law university which was planned to be setup at Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad will not be able start this year. It was planned that students will be able to earn a law degree after 5 years of BA LLB and for this purpose 20 scholars were sent abroad for their doctorates in the concerned field and they have arrived back. Doctor Amjad Ghazi has been hired as project director of the university. Rupees 7.8 million has been spent for the purchase of books. In Karachi 15000 sq feet building has been acquired for the temporary setup and huge amounts are being spent in the form of rent. This all seems to going in vain.
Here are the key leaders in the ranking:
Agriculture / Veterinary
1. University of Agriculture (UAF), Faisalabad
2. NWFP University of Agriculture , Peshawar
3. University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi
4. Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam
Art / Design
1. National College of Arts, Lahore
2. Textile Institute of Pakistan, Karachi
3. Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture, Karachi
Business / I.T.
1. Lahore Uni. of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore
2. Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi
3. Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Sci. & Tech. Karachi
4. Iqra University, Defence View, Karachi
5. Lahore School of Economics (LSE) , Lahore
6. Institute of Business Management (IBM), Karachi
Engineering
1. Pakistan Institute of Engg. and Applied Sciences, Islamabad
2. National University of Sciences & Technology Rawalpindi
3. Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering, Swabi
4. University of Engg. & Technology (UET), Lahore
5. Mehran University of Engg. & Technology (MUET), Jamshoro
6. University of Engg. & Technology (UET), Taxila
General
1. Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad
2. University of the Punjab, Lahore
3. University of Karachi, Karachi
4. University of Peshawar, Peshawar
5. Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan
6. Government College Lahore University, Lahore
Health Sciences
1. Aga Khan University, Karachi
2. Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro
3. Baqai Medical University, Karachi
4. Zia-ud-din Medical University, Karachi
University of Hong Kong [which is ranked as 33 in world ranking] has offered undergraduate scholarships for Pakistani students. Under this program, scholarships will be offered in all fields except MBBS (Medicine) program. The scholarships will be of following three types: Last date for submission of application is January 31, 2009. The details of undergraduate scholarships are available on University of Hong Kong web site:
Lahore Unviersity of Management Sciences (LUMS) through its Centre for Advanced Studies in Mathematics (CASM) has invted nominations/applications for post doctoral fellowships (@ Pak Rs. 70,000.00 per month) for six months during the year 2009-10. The applications should be succinct and include the following: Name, Date of birth, Academic qualifications starting from B.Sc., Research experience, List of publications, Research proposal, Address for correspondence and name of two referees. Applications are welcome at any time, but the review process starts on July. 1, 2009. Details :
For further inquiries contact: Scientific Director, Centre for Advanced Studies in Mathematics, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore Cantt.-54792, PAKISTAN (E-mail: casm@lums.edu.pk).
Introduction With His Majesty’s consent, the Government of Brunei Darussalam is offering annual scholarships under a special scholarship award scheme, commencing in 2009-10 academic session. Under this program following courses are being offered in various universities of Brunei Drassalam:
The aim of the scholarship award is to provide students, with the opportunity to stay at Universiti Brunei Darussalam [UBD], Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali [UNISSA],
Eligibility Criteria
Applicant must be citizens of ASEAN, OIC, Commonwealth member countries and others and must be between the age of 18-25 ate the commencement of the academic session for which they are applying for admission. However, under exceptional case, the age limit requirement may be waived for candidates who are applying for Master programs at Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
Details to apply are at:
http://hec.gov.pk/www.hec.gov.pk/Brunei@124
For further details http://hec.gov.pk/www.hec.gov.pk/Brunei
Contact Person: Rezwana Siddiqui, Project Director (FFSP /
(b). Begum Bilquis Scholarship Scheme (BBSS).
Shaheen Foundation has launched special scholarship scheme named “Begum Bilquis Scholarship Scheme (BBSS)” for all academic expenditures for Bachelor/Master level courses for children of deceased PAF personnel (Airmen, Civilians & Officers); handicapped retired PAF personnel who have a debilitating sickness resulting in physical in-capacitance due to limb loss or otherwise which prevents them from active work; retired PAF personnel who have a special child or terminally sick family member, whose education or care means extra financial burden.
Applicant becomes eligible for BBSS when he/she gets admission in professional college after passing FSc exam.
Application forms are available at
The state of education is well known in Pakistan. And many believe, and rightly, that any intervention that hopes to change the state of education in the country has to focus attention on teachers as well. What are the qualifications of those who become teachers in Pakistan (pre-service), and what is [...]
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