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HEC audit ordered to judge its performance
ISLAMABAD, May 7(Daily Times): The federal cabinet
has ordered the Higher Education Commission's (HEC) international quality
education audit to judge its performance, officials said.
They said the cabinet, in its meeting on April 11, had expressed
concern over the deteriorating standards of education in the country. It noted
that the indiscriminate award of charters to private universities and
acquisition of substandard PhD degrees by individuals without any adequate
quality assurance mechanisms in place.
The cabinet observed that there
was a proliferation of agencies and organisations dealing with educational
institutes at the federal and provincial levels resulting in the deterioration
of education, which needed to be checked, officials said.
They said the
HEC had been directed to regularly evaluate the performance of all private and
government universities in the country and publicise their rankings to promote a
culture of competition among the universities.
The cabinet also felt that
transparent criteria should be evolved for the funding of private sector
universities in addition to expediting work on the Ghandara University, the
Balochistan University and the Multan University. They said the cabinet had also
directed the HEC to make PhD college teachers' allowance equal to university
teachers' from July 1 this year.
In its recent meeting, the Senate
Standing Committee on Education observed that PhD teachers in reputed
universities were receiving Rs 5,000 per month as PhD allowance, while PhD
teachers in colleges and universities in remote areas were deprived of the
same.
The committee had recommended that the government adopt a uniform
policy in this regard. The cabinet, the officials said, believed that the HEC
should consider funding the Tourism Development Institute, Swat, currently run
by the Tourism Ministry to train people, mainly in hospitality.
The
ministry has also approached the HEC for affiliation with some local or foreign
university. "We have also approached a world recognised Austrian institute for
affiliation," said a senior Tourism Ministry official.
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