Higher Education Commission budget concerns
HEC shows concern over proposed cut on budget
Islamabad, Sep 02: Higher Education Commission (HEC)
expressed its serious concerns over the proposed financial cut on
development and non-development budget to cover the floods damages
across the country and demanded to exempt education sector particularly
higher education from this financial constraint. Talking to media
persons at HEC Secretariat on Tuesday, HEC Chairman Dr Javaid R Laghari
said the Planning Commission had been showing non-serious attitude,
which might negatively impact the future of thousands of students
getting higher education across the world. He said both Ministry
of Finance and World Bank were agreed upon the funding of Rs 28 billion
to promote talent and intellectualism in the country, but planning
commission applied a cut of Rs 5 billion and only approved Rs 25 billion
for HEC during ongoing fiscal year 2010-11. Laghari said the
federal government had announced 50 percent ad hoc increase in salaries,
15 percent increase in medical allowances and 15 to 20 percent increase
in pension. Total impact of all these benefits amounts to Rs 7 billion,
however the Finance Division had not been providing this amount to HEC,
he maintained. The chairman said overall enrollment of students
in different universities and degree-awarding institutes across the
country had increased to 82 percent during last five years, while HEC
had set the target to provide tertiary education up to 27.7 million boys
and girls between 17 to 23 years of age up to year 2020. He
said the government had paid special attention to girls' education as
the literacy rate in females had jumped to 46.4 percent of total
population with an increase of 4.9 percent during last 10 years. "On
the other hand, the literacy rate of boys' education has been recorded
at 53.6 percent with shocking decrease of 9.44 percent as compared to
financial year 2000-01," the chairman added. He said HEC had
committed to provide assistance to 2,800 foreign PhD students out of
which 350 scholars across the country had completed this programme.
Similarly, 385 scholars had got Ph D degrees out of total 3,800 local
PhD programmes announced by HEC. Laghari was on the view that
there should be at least 35 to 37 percent increase in HEC budget every
year to meet the education policy goals by 2015 while seven percent of
total budget for education sector should be proposed up to Rs 1.464
trillion while the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the country
might be estimated $220 billion till year 2015. The chairman said
government allocated Rs 15.762 billion for the HEC in the federal
budget for 2010-11 under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP),
which was 29.94 percent less than the previous year because of some
financial constraints.
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'No pressure of Presidency regarding degrees verification'
Islamabad: HEC Chairman Dr Javaid R Laghari said that the commission
had received total 1,055 degrees for verification process out of which
371 were found correct, while 50 were fake and 15 were incomplete and
sent to the courts and 599 were still in verification process. Laghari said that under last session of
verification, HEC received 52 degrees from various institutions, which
the commission had forwarded to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
"All universities have been given a deadline of submission of degrees to
HEC till Eidul Fitr. And hopefully this process would be over soon," he
said. The chairman said the Presidency was not pressurising the HEC
with regard to the verification of degrees of parliamentarians. "The
prime minister has directed the commission to follow rules and
procedures while dealing with this issue. The process is going on
smoothly and all universities are fully cooperating with HEC," Laghari
clarified. Daily times
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Floods have affected 38% of QAU students: VC
Islamabad: Quaid-i-Azam University
Vice-Chancellor Dr. Masoom Yasinzai has said that 37 per cent students
of the university (1,800 out of 4,800) are direct flood victims. He
was speaking at an Iftar-dinner organised by Quaideen, the QAU Alumni
Association, at Islamabad Club to launch its countrywide campaign of
flood relief. He said that despite difficulties, Academic Staff
Association and employees of QAU are trying to raise funds and help
victims of the flood. He said that he is receiving emails every day in
which students were saying that they cannot study as every of their
belongings back home were washed away by floods. He warned that many of them may fall to terrorists as they belong to vulnerable areas. He
said that there were 900 applicants against 40 seats for BBA in
economics. He said that School of Management Sciences will be starting
4-year BBA programme this year and existing Department of Administrative
Sciences will be merged with it. Quaid-i-Azam School of Law will also
be established at QAU on its own which will have a 3-year graduate
programme followed by LLB. Earlier, Quaideen Secretary General
Murtaza Noor said that Quaideen will also hold a mega job fair for
outgoing students. He said that Quaideen is activating its regional
chapters in big cities of the country to participate in flood relief
activities. He said that efforts will be made to ensure maximum
transparency. Sikandar Roy, President of Quaideen, said that the
Alumni Association has crossed the ideological barrier of red, green,
religion, clan and class. Dr. Basit who is also Rector of Preston
University donated Rs 0.3 million to Quaideen on the occasion said that
Quaideen gatherings enable to meet old friends and such gatherings
should continue. Dr. Sakhawat Shah, the oldest alumnae in the function
and VC of Hazara University said that university should deduct one per
cent every month from the salary of all staff and put it in a welfare
fund on permanent basis. Tariq Malik, Deputy Chairperson of NADRA, a
Quaideen, Dr. Arshad Zia and Jamshed Iftikhar also spoke on the
occasion.
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KEMU pro-VC justifies appointment
Lahore: The newly-appointed pro-vice chancellor
of King Edward Medical University, Prof Dr Asad Aslam Khan, has
justified his appointment by saying that KEMU Act 2005 doesn't put the
condition of seniority for appointment on the post of pro-vice
chancellor. As per Chapter III, article 15(1) of the KEMU Act, the
appointment of Pro-VC KEMU shall be as follows: "The pro-vice chancellor
shall be appointed by the chancellor on the recommendation of the
government and in consultation with the vice chancellor from among the
professors of the university and shall hold office on the pleasure of
the chancellor for a term not exceeding four years." Therefore,
seniority is not the prerequisite for appointment on the post of
pro-vice chancellor in the varsity. Prof Asad Aslam clarified that he
stood well below 100 instead of 127th in overall seniority list;
whereas, he was below 20 in seniority within KEMU. Yet, he said that the
person to be appointed as Pro-VC of KEMU has to be chosen from among
the professors within the university and not from the professors of
Punjab. When Prof SM Awais was appointed as pro-vice chancellor, he was
at seniority No.11 at KEMU and not the senior most.
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Bahria University has new pro-rector
Islamabad: Rear Admiral (r) Ehsan Saeed, SI (M), has assumed the charge of the office of Pro-Rector
Bahria University from August 23, 2010, says a press release issued by
the Bahria University Public Relations Department here on Tuesday.
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City School students excel in Cambridge exams
Islamabad: Students of the City School,
Islamabad Campus, excelled in the Cambridge International Examinations
'O' & 'A' Level Results 2009-10, says a press release issued here on
Tuesday. In 'A' levels, there have been 20 A* and 52 A, with Sarah
Afzal scoring a commendable achievement of 5 A*. The results of 'O'
levels, boys and girls both, have been equally remarkable with a
significant number of students achieving straight As. There have been
106 A* and 10 A*. Hania Liaqat with 5 A* and 4 A and Syeda Bushmah Owais
with 3 A* and 6 A have excelled among girls. City School (Islamabad
Campus) Principal Shagun Irfan congratulated the students and their
parents on the brilliant success. In a separate message to the teachers,
she lauded their dedicated efforts for producing an impressive result
and their role in guiding the students towards achieving international
distinction. The news
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