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Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities
Introduction

Initiatives in Social Sciences

Quality education in Social Sciences & Humanities plays a major role in the socio-economic development of any country. In Pakistan there has been sporadic development in this sector over the past years but no substantial effort has been undertaken until recently. The Higher Education Commission since its inception in year 2003 has taken a number of initiatives ranging from human resource development to providing research grants, and developing linkages at both National and International level in order to revive quality education in Social sciences and Humanities. 

A committee on development of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities in Pakistan comprising of eminent social scientists has been constituted by Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman Chairman, Higher Education Commission.  This committee has been given the task to deliberate upon, identify the problems and to recommend immediate, short term as well as long term measures to make social sciences education, vibrant, dynamic and attuned to the present and future needs of Pakistan. The committee is currently being chaired by Dr.Nasser Ali Khan, Director, Institute of Management Sciences (IMSciences) Peshawar.

At a cost of Rs 24 Million the Higher Education Commission has also established the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Pakistan.  It provides funding for Research Grants, helps in establishing National/International linkages between universities and provides funds for organizing Seminars and Conferences. A well equipped library along with database of faculty and their related research is also being established for the researchers through the research council. 

At present the total amount allocated for all ongoing projects related to the promotion Social Sciences; Arts & Humanities by HEC is Rs.4.744 billion. This amount is being spent through initiatives taken by HEC focusing over three main dimensions:

1.     Faculty/Human Resource Development in Social Sciences

2.      Institutional Development
 
3.      Promotion of Research Culture

 

“Committee for Development of Social Sciences and Humanities in Pakistan” (CDSSHP)

The Committee for Development of Social Sciences and Humanities in Pakistan” (CDSSHP) is an advisory committee established by Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2003. Eminent Social Scientists from various higher education institutions throughout the country were nominated as members of the Committee. The first meeting of the Committee chaired by Dr.Atta-ur-Rahman, Chairman, HEC was held on April 7-8, 2003. Dr.Najma Najam was appointed as the first Chairperson of the committee (2003-2006) while Dr.Ishrat Husain served as the Chairman of the committee from 2006 to 2009. Dr.Nasser Ali Khan, Director, Institute of Management Sciences (IMSciences) Peshawar  has been appointed as third Chairman of CDSSHP.

The primary objective of the Committee is to develop the existing level of faculty and to create an environment that would be conducive to research and development activities in Social Sciences & Humanities sector. These essentially fell into these major areas :

           i.         Encouraging R&D in Social Sciences

      To identify diverse social and human issues in Pakistan through understanding and initiating plans for social transformation by encouraging research & development.

         ii.         Faculty development

      To improve and develop faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities through indigenous and foreign Scholarships.

       iii.         Institutional and infrastructure development

      To upgrade the existing resources and provision of institutional support to various departments/Centre of Excellence/Institutes of public sector universities across the country.

        iv.         Quality Assurance Standards

      To review quality assurance, academic, faculty appointment, journals and other standards as they are applicable in the domain of Humanities and Social Sciences.

          v.         Status Reports

      To review and prepare reports on the state of education and research in different disciplines of Humanities and Social Sciences.

 

Annual Report of the " Committee for Development of Social Sciences and Humanities in Pakistan"  

 

HEC Recognized Journals
HEC has been endeavoring to raise the quality of research in Pakistan to an international level. Research journals are the excellent tool to enhance research capabilities. As such it has been decided to approve those research journals which meet the HEC criteria for recognized journals. Different lists have been approved for different purposes and different time frames and are applicable only within the given frame work. These link provides you the relevant information :
Category Z  
Category Y  
Category X  
Application form for HEC Recognized Journals
Application form for Journal's Funding

 

Thematic Research Grant Program

heclogo

HIGHER EDUCATION COMMISSION PAKISTAN

Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Pakistan (SSHRCP)

 

 

 
Invitation of Proposals for Thematic Research Grant Program
Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Pakistan (SSHRCP), Higher Education Commission Pakistan invites the proposals for Thematic Research Grant Program which is specially designed to address the contemporary issues of the country. The scholars of Social Sciences & Humanities, who have theoretical, conceptual, methodological and policy orientation background may apply for grants under subject program. The research projects may belong to any one of the Social Sciences & Humanities disciplines or may be interdisciplinary in nature. Groups or individual Researchers from Public/ Private sector universities can submit their proposals against one of the following themes. 

 

  1. Ethnicity, Social cohesion and Political integration.
  2. Family Transition, Technology and Social Change.
  3. Economics of Extremism and Violence.

Click here to download the details of the themes.

Application for Grants and Selection Procedure:

Higher Education Commission will organize research competitions annually and fund selected research projects. A Call for Proposals will be announced every year. This announcement will be carried out in the National News Papers and HEC web site. Research proposals will generally be invited on issues of the economic relevance to Pakistan. The general guidelines for application and selection criteria will be highlighted: 

Guidelines for Funding and Application:

  1. Grants will be awarded for one year only.
  2. Applicants must be a full time teacher/researcher of public/private sector universities/ DAIs/ research institutions.
  3. An applicant cannot submit more than one project in a year.
  4. Steering Committee Member cannot be a project holder or a researcher.
  5. A formal application must be made by the institution (e.g. Universities, research institutes) with which the applicant is affiliated and if the project proposal is funded, the institution will be responsible for the administration of the grant. No funds will be paid directly to the individuals.

Proposal Review:

Selection will be made on a competitive basis. The Research Advisory Panel (RAP) of SSHRCP comprising of renowned Social Scientist will evaluate the research proposals.

Review/Approval Mechanism: 

  • Project Proposal: The sub-committee for each theme would conduct Peer reviewers to identify suitable projects and the Principal Investigators of approved proposals would be invited to present their possible research ideas.
  • Interim Report: There would be a mid term review where a larger review committee of professionals would get together to critically evaluate papers and provide feedback to the researchers at a workshop.
  • Final Evaluation: Final evaluation would be linked to a conference: “annual conference of social sciences” one session would be dedicated to these researchers to present their papers for peer review and comments

 

Evaluation Criteria:

All applications will be received by SSHRCP at HEC and will be forwarded to the Evaluation Committee for peer review. The evaluation of the research proposals will be based on:

  1. Clarity of the proposed research question
  2. Originality
  3. Use of the most modern and appropriate techniques.
  4. Cost effectiveness.  

Guidelines for Proposal Submission:

  1. Proposals must include the following components:
  2. A cover sheet clearly specifying the project title, names of principal researchers and e-mail address.
  3. An abstract of no more than 200 words outlining the significance of the research and the methodology to be used.
  4. A research proposal of no more than ten (10) doubled- spaced pages.
  5. A brief survey of literature and some indication of the availability of data.
  6. A bibliography of relevant literature.
  7. Short CVs of participating researcher/s (not more than ten pages).
  8. Information on how many other project/s the researchers/s will be involved at the same time as the proposed study.
  9. The proposed budget on a separate sheet in the format below. If more than one institute is involved, the budget must clearly state the expenses for each institute in respect of all cost-heads, viz.  
  • Remigrations
  • Field Survey/Data Collection
  • Books, Stationary and Software
  • Communications
  • Travel for workshop/conference
  • Subtotal
  • Overheads (up to 2% of the subtotal)
  • Grand Total

Grants cannot be used for buying vehicles, computers, hardware and other acquisitions of a capital nature.         

Grants

Maximum funding up to Rs.1.0 million for each research project.

Payment Schedule: 

The disbursement pattern would be 25°/o upon award of the grant and signing of the contract, 50% upon receipt of the progress report at the mid-point of the grant and 25% upon receipt of final deliverables from the grant.

 

Submission Date:

 The Last Date for submission of proposals is 15th September, 2009.

 

Sheikh Faisal Shehzad

Project Manager

Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Pakistan

 Higher Education Commission, H-9, Islamabad

Phone: 051-90402430, 90402431 Fax: 051-90402429

 

Faculty/ HR Development

Faculty Development in Social Sciences:

 HEC has paid special attention for the development of faculty of Social Sciences in public sector universities. In order to enhance the academic excellence the HEC has initiated numerous projects. The projects for the faculty development are not only focused on the local faculty but also recruiting highly qualified faculty from abroad for rendering services in graduate research programs in different public sector universities/institutions in Pakistan. Funding for doctorate and post doctorate is available for the faculty locally and abroad.

The main projects being funded for the faculty include:

  1. PhD Scholarships in Social Sciences Arts and Humanities for University Teachers (137 scholars has been studying for PhD)
  2. HEC Post Doctoral Fellowship Program (33 scholars has been placed at different countries)
  3. Faculty Hiring Program (Short term and long term) (34+27 scholars has been placed in Pakistani Universities)
  4. Short Term Foreign Faculty Hiring Program (SFHP) Phase-II (27 scholars has been placed in Pakistani Universities)
  5. MS/M.Phil Leading to PhD Scholarships in Eng, Natural & Basic Sciences / Humanities / Social Sciences for the teachers of Weaker Universities (5 scholarships)
  6. Rehiring   
  7. National/ International Linkage under SSHRC (21 visits have been funded) 

Human Resource Development: 

Higher Education Commission has embarked upon a program to develop the human resources in the country is to encourage the human resource development in all areas and to develop the tradition of learning & advancement through launching new scholarship programs for students, teachers, scientists or technologists.

The major thrust for human resource development is directed towards developing a strong base of PhD faculty members and qualified professionals. This involves scholarship programs for increasing the PhD faculty base, as well as provision of enhanced facilities to existing PhD qualified faculty. The scholarship programs are being developed for students as well as the faculty to attain PhD degrees both within, as well as, outside the country. Several scholarship schemes are currently being implemented by HEC including foreign scholarship, fellowships, and indigenous programs. The number of scholars selected under different programs are as follows :

  1. Indigenous PhD fellowship Program (5000 Scholars) – 364 scholars
  2. Master Leading to PhD Scholarship for Economics and Finance-Abroad (50 scholars)
  3. Placement of PhD scholars Returning from Abroad Program (3 scholars)
  4. HEC-Japanese Need Based Scholarship Program for Pakistani Universities Students(50)
  5. HEC US need based Scholarship Program.(326 scholars)

 

 
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