In pursuit of institutional excellence in teaching and research, HEC has made massive investments to upgrade the physical infrastructure of universities, particularly to cater for the requirements of increased enrollment in higher education and to accommodate the students admitted through various human resource development programs. Cognizant of the fact that traditional brick-and-mortar solutions to improve access will only have an impact to limited degree, HEC has developed a comprehensive ICT strategy to utilize ICTs and distance education to provide education to the masses.
Decades of under-investment in the Higher Education system have led to under-development of physical infrastructure of universities. Strategies for increasing enrollment in higher education, improving research capacity and improving quality of education programs succeed only when the necessary infrastructure for these intervention strategies is in place. In this regard, HEC is complementing these activities through a host of physical and technological infrastructure programs to provide high-quality education services to the sector.
The Planning and Development division of HEC has continued to work with the Planning and Finance divisions of the Government of Pakistan to ensure that development needs of the various public sector universities are provided for. The development expenditure of the universities is allocated on the basis of performance and need, where the need is defined both in terms of the particular requirements of that institution as well as the need for improvement in the higher education sector at a macro level. Universities are encouraged to submit development projects that are relevant to their institutional needs. These projects are submitted for review by the appropriate authority (DDWP, CDWP or ECNEC- dependant on project expenditure) and funds are released accordingly.
Examples of the types of projects funded in this manner are as follows:
Development of new universities and degree awarding institutions
Introduction of new disciplines and cutting edge technologies
Improvement of existing infrastructure
Upgrading/ strengthening/ establishing of Laboratories
Universities have now been encouraged to submit ‘University Mega-Projects’, which contain all of the development activities the universities envisage to complete over a period of five to seven years. These Mega-Projects are designed according to individual institutional visions and objectives and are placed for review at the ECNEC level.
Research Infrastructure
The establishment of a dynamic and productive science system that can fuel the process of innovation critical for the development of Pakistan’s knowledge economy is one of the major contributions of HEC to Pakistan. The cornerstone of our strategy in this regard is to enable and nurture truly world-class research at indigenous institutions and to ensure that the research enterprise is sufficiently integrated with industry.
HEC’s programs to establish the competitiveness of research base in global context are geared towards recognizing and supporting truly excellent research-financially-along with fostering effective collaboration. Aligned with the human resource and faculty development programs of the Commission, our programs are aimed at enabling researchers to respond to new trends and developments in their fields and to generate new knowledge critical to the national innovation system. HEC has targeted its programs towards supporting the development of the research enterprise to come to grips with possible future directions of S&T to capture the potential social, economic and environmental benefits that may accompany such technological advances. The successful exploitation of new technologies is now a core component of achieving and maintaining international competitiveness which shall in turn be beneficial for the country.
The programs implemented by the Commission to establish a culture of research in indigenous institutions traget the sector in a holistic manner. The aim has been to create an environment conducive to the conduct of world-class research by improving PhD qualifications of research supervisors, meeting short-term deficiencies through the hiring of international experts and creating pool of talented research students through competitive scholarship programs. Coupled with Infrastructure support programs, the establishment of new laboratories and specialized instrumentation centres and providing ICT solutions including high connectivity and a world-leading online digital library resource, HEC aims to re-establish research as the primary activity of our universities. A host of funding opportunities have been provided to support innovative research projects, and mechanisms have been put into place to ensure the relevance of this research to national priorities along with the integration of the research process with the industrial sector.