Foreign universities set up plan finally abandoned
Plan to set up foreign varsities shelved
Islamabad, Jan 02: The government has finally abandoned the visionary programme of
four world-class foreign universities that were to be established in partnership
with foreign countries, learnt reliably. It is a great pity
that this program of huge national significance has been abandoned at this stage
since consortia of top foreign universities have already been formed in Germany,
Italy, Austria and China. In the case of the Pakistan-China University even the
rector and senior Chinese faculty members have been selected. It will also be
the source of a major international embarrassment if we withdraw at this late
stage.The establishment of Engineering, Science & Technology
Universities in Pakistan (UESTP's) brought enormous criticism to the former
chairman of Higher Education Commission, Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman for envisaging this
programme without understanding the various aspects of the programme.Pakistani parents spend about Rs 80 billion annually to send their children
abroad to obtain quality higher education. Thus over 11,000 visas were granted
last year by the British High Commission for students to study in British
Universities. This program would not only have saved much of this huge drain on
our foreign exchange but also attracted many students to Pakistan from the
Middle East, as they would have been able to get degrees from top foreign
universities without ever going abroad.The hearts of these universities were the technology parks. About half the area
of each university had been set aside for the technology parks. Arrangements had
been made with the foreign partners to establish the R&D Centres of their
top companies in the technology parks of these universities.Projects of the
establishment of 4 world-class universities in partnership with consortia of top
universities in Germany, Italy, Austria and China were approved by ECNEC in
February 2008 at a cost of about Rs. 160 billion. These universities of
Engineering, Science and Technology would have offered BS, MS and Ph.D. courses
and degrees of the foreign universities would have been awarded in Pakistan.
This visionary program would have allowed Pakistani students to obtain world
class foreign education without going to foreign countries. Approved by ECNEC in
February 2008, the projects were again presented to the Prime Minister Yousuf
Raza Gilani on May 12, 2008. The Prime Minister approved the implementation of
this program and gave necessary directions. The Prime Minster was pleased to agree to the implementation of the four ECNEC
approved UESTPs including Pak-China, Pak-German, Pak-Austria and Pak-Italian
Universities in accordance with the phasing approved by ECNEC. On May 19,
however, the Cabinet froze the program and decided to form a four-member
committee comprising Begum Shehnaz Wazir Ali,. Salman Farooqui Former Deputy
Chairman, Planning Commission, Jahangir Bashar ,Secretary Education and Hina
Rabbani Khar. The Cabinet Committee recommended to the cabinet that the program
should be implemented but at a reduced cost of 72 billion instead of the
original cost of about 160 billion with a correspondingly reduced number of
students. The Cabinet has however not so far taken any decision in this matter
but instead decided in its meeting in Lahore that the provinces should also be
consulted. The provinces have already allocated several billion worth of rupees
of land and have strongly supported the establishment of these universities.
Pakistan has not succeeded in establishing a single international R&D
Centre during the last 60 years, whereas India and China have hundreds. Through
this programme, each of these universities would have had 15-20 R&D Centres
of top foreign companies like Siemens, Eriksson and many others had agreed
thereby bringing us to the forefront of new technology development. These
universities were therefore being set up not just to educate Pakistanis and
produce more engineering graduates although these are desperately needed, we
produce only engineering graduates annually as compared to 420,000 produced by
India, but to engineer Pakistan. One of the main criticisms against them was
that these universities were extremely expensive. The costs of each project were
comparable the costs of setting up a Pakistani university such as NUST. There
were no "luxuries", the construction costs were those normally accepted by
Planning, ranging from Rs. 1500 per sq ft to 2500 per sq ft, depending on the
nature of the building. The Nation
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Perveen Qadir appointed IIU director
Islamabad: Begum Perveen Qadir Agha joined her new assignment as Director
Women Campus at International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI) here
Thursday. In her new job, she would look over the developments of over 5,000
women students of IIUI from across 50 countries as well as women faculty
members. Perveen Qadir Agha has an enviable record of public service as
the federal secretary of Women Development, Social Welfare, and Special
Education (2001-2003) and secretary Population Division. She also
functioned as the judicial member of Federal Board of Revenue as well as
chairman Income Tax Settlement Commission (1999-2001). After retirement,
she was appointed member National Commission for Government Reforms and member
Academic Council Fatima Jinnah Women University. She is also member Board of
Governors as well as member Syndicate of FJWU.Perveen Agha holds LLM
degree from Harvard University. Earlier, she studied Political Science
and Law at Punjab University and also came out first Class first in
International Relations. The News
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