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Rs 35b allocated for scholarships
KARACHI, Sep 7: Chairman HEC Prof Dr Attaur Rahman on Thursday said that the professors in the country
would be paid from Rs 80,000 to Rs 312,000 under the Tenure Track System
(TTS).
Around, Rs 35 billion will be spent on account of scholarship
programme, initiated by the HEC to produce quality PhDs in the country, sending
students abroad for acquiring higher education.
The HEC had decided to
provide 40,000 online books under the e-books support programme in addition to
23,000 journals that had been made available through the Digital Library
Programme.
Speaking at a press conference held at International Centre for
Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, he said that
under the TTS the salary of an assistant professor of any public university
would be started from Rs 80,000 to Rs 160,000.
"Similarly, under the said
programme an associate professor and a full professor will be able to obtain Rs
120,000 to Rs 250,000 and Rs 180,000 to 312,000 on account of monthly salaries
respectively. This is absolutely performance based system, approved by the
federal cabinet two days ago," he said.
Talking about the scholarship
programme, he said that the HEC would send one thousand more students this year
to the top European universities for completing PhD courses.
"While 500
students will also be sent in next year for said purpose, around Rs 35 billion
will be spent for the said programme. Under the programme about 70 percent of
the fund is allocated for basic or pure sciences, while 30 percent of the fund
is being spent in promotion of social sciences in the country.
The major
objective of the programme is to develop and strengthen the quality faculty for
the national universities; whereas more than 500 scholars have been arrived in
the country under the foreign faculty hiring programme. The HEC is also
organizing faculty staff development courses in the various universities of the
country," he said.
Talking about the e-books programme, Dr Atta said that the
said programme would allow researchers to access most of the important text and
reference books electronically in a variety of subject areas.
He said that
these books were published by over 220 leading international publishers; the
objective of the entire attempt was to support and strengthen the learning
activities of students in the country.
"The books cover various disciplines,
including Business and Management, Information Technology, Engineering, Health
and Biomedical, Life and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, etc. the important
feature of the this programme is that these books are downloadable," he
added.
He said that the revolutionary initiatives taken by the HEC had
brought up positive and vital change in the field of higher education in the
country. To a query, he said that the 'model university ordnance' was not
obligatory for the universities, while the commission would not pressurize any
administration of the university to adopt the ordinance.
He said that the
HEC had developed a technology based national development vision ad action plan
after detailed consultations with subject experts, representatives of Chambers
of Commerce and Industry, industrialists and representatives of the
government.
"Some key sectors have been focused in the plan, including
energy, agriculture, textiles, leather, engineering, materials, chemicals and
pharmaceuticals, electronics, telecommunication and information technology,
construction, housing, transport and defense technologies," he said. The nation
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