Introduction to

Higher Education Commission

By
Shaikh Muhammad Ali
Project Director (HRD)
18th March 2008
 Overview
• HEC Mission
• Status, Challenges and Govt. Action
• HEC Strategy and Aims
• HRD Programs
• R&D and New Initiatives
 HEC Mission
“To Facilitate Institutions of
Higher Learning to serve as
an Engine of Socio-
Economic Development of
Pakistan”
Current Status, Challenges &
Government Actions
 Higher Education Reform
• Task Force on Higher Education (4/01)
• Study Group on S & T (10/01)
• Steering Committee on Higher Education (01-08/02)
– Funding of universities to be doubled in 2 years
– Income generated by universities to be retained by
them
– De-link faculty pay from BPS and shift to
performance – based higher pay scale
• Higher Education Commission (09/02)
– Autonomous body
– DDWP Powers, Funds transfer authority
 Higher Education Commission
Constituted on September 11, 2002 under Ordinance
No. LIII, 2002
• Responsible for the improvement and promotion of
higher education, research and development in Pakistan
• Autonomous body with the Prime Minister of Pakistan as
the Controlling Authority
• Chairman HEC has status of Federal Minister
• Executive Director, HEC
– Has status of Federal Secretary
– Is the Principal Accounting Officer of the Commission
– May submit summaries or cases to Cabinet directly
 Number of Private Universities &
Institutions, 1982/83-2004/05
60

50

40
Number

30

20

10

0
1982/83 1984/85 1986/87 1988/89 1990/91 1992/93 1994/95 1996/97 1998/99 2000/01 2002/03 2004/05

Universities Degree Awarding Institutions

 Enrollment in post-secondary
education: +12 yrs onwards
300000

250000

200000
2001-02
150000
2002-03
2003-04
100000

50000

0
BSc/BA Master M.Phil PhD PGD
 Enrollment in Post-secondary
education: Male-Female

250000

200000

150000
Public
Private

100000 Total

50000

0
2001-02(M) 2001-02(F) 2002-03(M) 2002-03(F) 2003-04(M) 2003-04(F)
HEC Strategy and
Aims
 Key Areas of Improvement
• Access
– Low enrollment in higher education
• Quality
– Poor standard of faculty and lack of training /
capacity building
– Low quality of teaching & research and lack of
relevance to national needs
– Poor governance of universities
• Relevance
– Minimal relevance of higher education to
national needs
55 Years of Neglect
 HEC Strategic Aims
Excellence in Relevance to
Core

Faculty Improving
Learning & National
Development Access
Research Priorities

Good Governance & Management

Support

Quality Assurance: Standards, Assessment, Accreditation

Infrastructure Development: Physical / Technological

 Budget Allocations for Higher
Education Sector
Rs. in Billions

30 Dev Rec Total

2001-02 0.423 2.947 3.370

25
2002-03 4.265 3.487 7.752
20
2003-04 4.968 5.305 10.273
15
2004-05 8.940 6.996 15.936
10 2005-06 11.700 10.493 22.193

5 2006-07 14.300 14.480 28.780

0
2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07

Dev Rec Total

 Recurring Grants
to Universities & Institutes
16000

14000

12000
Grant (Rs. in Million)

10000

8000

6000

4000

2000

0
2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07
Years
 Year wise Development
Projects with HEC
Number of Projects in PSDP

369
400 346
321
350
300
250 217

200
150 113

100
32
50
0
2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07
Faculty Development

Programs and Achievements

 Faculty Development
Develop a strong base of Ph.D. level highly qualified faculty
(25% ⇒ 100%)
• Short Term Solution
– Short Term Expatriate faculty Hiring
– International Faculty Hiring ( 1 – 2 years)
– Hiring of productive retiring researchers
– Faculty Training
• Longer Term Solution
– Indigenous Scholarship Programs (~200 / year ⇒
~1500 / year)
– Overseas Scholarship Programs
– Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program
 HRD Projects

Need Based
Scholarships
(Undergraduate + Doctoral Support
Graduate), 3 Program, 4
Undergraduate, 2 Split PhD Program, 2

Post Doctorate, 3
Masters, 6

Doctoral (Indigenous), 4

Doctoral (Overseas), 19
 Current Status of Indigenous Programs
(Physical)

Batch-IV

Batch-III

Batch-II

Batch-I

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000

Scholarships Offered Scholarships Availed Applicants

Batch Total No of Applicants No of Scholars Awarded No of Scholars Availing

Batch-I(2003-04) 22000 1297 606
Batch-II(2004-05) 16000 1621 813
Batch-III(2006-07) 9321 2231 888
Batch-IV(2007-08) 3572 3572 750
Total 51078 8721 3057
 Discipline Wise Distribution
of Scholars Availing Indigenous Scholarship

Batch-IV 5% 10%
12%
Batch-III 17%

Batch-II

Batch-I 7%
35%
14%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Agriculture Bio Medical Arts& Humanities Social Sciences

Physical Sciences Engineering Business Education

2003-04 2004-05 2006-07 2007-08

Discipline Batch-I Batch-II Batch-III Batch-IV Total
125
Agriculture & Veterinary Sciences 33 55 88 301
Biological & Medical Sciences 71 151 148 156 526

Arts & Humanities 25 61 90 35 211

Social Sciences 93 137 129 55 414

Physical Sciences 273 222 315 292 1102

Engineering & Technology 73 139 84 68 364
Business Education 38 48 34 19 139
Total 606 813 888 750 3057
 Number of Scholarships Awarded under
HEC Overseas Scholarship Projects

1000

900
151
800

700

600
91
500 Number of
Scholars to
400 791 Proceed abroad
300 67
205 513
200
262 41
100 49
134 130
88 11
0 26 Number of
Agriculture & Biological & Physical Engineering Business Arts & Social Scholars Studying
Veterinary Medical Sciences & Education Humanities Sciences Abroad
Sciences Sciences Technology
Total Number of Scholars Awarded = 2,559
 Year-Wise Scholarships Awarded under
HEC Overseas Scholarship Projects

Discipline FY 2003-2004 FY 2004-2005 FY 2005-2006 FY 2006-2007

Engineering & Technology 96 115 219 210

Physical Sciences 58 103 135 130

Agriculture & Veterinary
Sciences 23 22 30 85
Biological & Medical
Sciences 20 90 110 287

Business Education 6 12 64 41

Social Sciences 11 23 59 47

Total 214 365 617 800

 Year-Wise Scholarships Awarded under HEC
Overseas Scholarship Projects
350

300 287
FY 2003-2004

250
219
210
FY 2004-2005
200

150 135 130

115 FY 2005-2006
110
103
96
100 90
85
64 59
58
41
47 FY 2006-2007
50 30
23 22 20 23
12 11
6
0
Engineering & Physical Sciences Agriculture & Biological & Medical Business Education Social Sciences
Technology Veterinary Sciences Sciences

Total Number of Scholarships Awarded = 1996

 Scholarships Awarded under HEC Overseas
Scholarship Projects: Country
Agriculture & Biological &
Country Physical Engineering & Business Social No. of
Veterinary Medical
Name Sciences Technology Education Sciences Scholars
Sciences Sciences

Austria 7 22 122 52 14 9 226

France 66 41 104 201 49 30 491

Germany 23 14 42 80 9 12 180

Sweden 0 1 2 41 0 0 44

Netherlands 4 7 29 16 26 21 103

China 9 19 62 45 0 5 140

Cuba 0 360 0 0 0 0 360

New Zealand 23 22 13 19 15 23 115

UK 18 18 34 46 6 26 148

USA 0 3 11 31 0 13 58

Australia 8 0 1 6 4 1 20

Korea 0 0 0 75 0 0 75

Thailand 2 0 0 26 0 0 28

Canada 0 0 4 2 0 0 6

Ireland 0 0 2 0 0 0 2

Total 160 507 426 640 123 140 1996

 Post Doctoral Fellowships
45
40
40

35
30
30
26
25 24
25 23
Studying Abroad
20
20 24 19
21 To Proceed abroad
15
15
17 12
Returned
10
5
5 3
2

0
Agriculture& Biological & Physical Engineering & Business Social Sciences
Veterinary Medical Sciences Technology Education
Sciences Sciences
Total Scholarships Awarded = 274
 Foreign Faculty Hiring Program

Year Application Received Eligible Candidates Selected Candidates Joined

2003-2004 433 210 95 15

2004-2005 393 267 167 83

2005-2006 338 216 110 60

2006-2007 91 87 66 49

2007-08 77 100 86 59

Total 1332 880 524 266

 Foreign Faculty Hiring Program

500

450 433

393
400

350 338
2003-2004
300
267 2004-2005

250
2005-2006
210 216

200 2006-2007
167

150 2007-2008
110
100 95
100 91 87 86
77 83
66 60 59
49
50
15

0
Application Received Eligible Candidates Selected Candidates Joined
Total Faculty Joined = 266
 Foreign Faculty Hiring Program (Short-Term)

180
160
160

140

120

100

80
65
60

40 30 33 32

20

0
2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007 Cummulative
 Excellence in Research
• Research Grant Program
• Pakistan Organization for Collaborative Research
• Presidential young innovators program
• International Research Support Initiative
• Support to Scientific Talent
• Sponsorship of Conferences
• Travel Grants
• Visiting Professorship/Faculty Exchange
• Access to Scientific Instrumentation
• Support to Scientific Journals
 International Linkages
• British University Linkage Program
• Pak-US S&T Research Linkage Program
• HEC – AIT Linkage
• HEC – DAAD, OeAD, SFERE, CSC, SI Linkages
• Split Ph.D. Program
• International Conference Support
• International Research Support Initiative
• Faculty Exchange
• Post Doctoral Fellowship
• University Linkage Program
Thank you