Islamabad, The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan’s pivotal project, Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP), marked significant progress during its eighth Steering Committee meeting at the HEC Secretariat in Islamabad, demonstrating substantial strides in the enhancement of higher education across the nation.

According to Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, the meeting was chaired by HEC Executive Director Dr. Zia Ul-Qayyum and attended by senior officials from federal ministries, provincial higher education departments, vice chancellors, and private sector representatives. HEDP, a US$ 400 million initiative running from 2019/20 to 2023/24, aims to implement key higher education priorities with an impressive achievement of 81% of its targets validated by a recent World Bank mission, improving the project’s rating significantly.

Project Coordinator Dr. Mehmood ul Hassan Butt provided an overview of HEDP’s accomplishments, detailing the World Bank Mission’s positive assessment and outlining the project’s remaining year’s focus on sustainability of its initiatives by HEC staff. Key components of the project include research, quality assurance, IT initiatives, and capacity building with significant developments such as the awarding of 10 Rapid Technology Transfer Grants (RTTG) aimed at fostering industry-academia collaborations for import substitutions.

Furthermore, the establishment of 41 Quality Enhancement Cells in affiliated colleges and the implementation of the new HEC Quality Assurance policy were highlighted, alongside ambitious IT projects like the Data Center and the Student Life Cycle system designed to bolster HEIs’ computing and storage facilities.

The committee discussed the challenges of public funding in the higher education sector, proposing strategies for revenue generation and financial autonomy. Over 100 HEIs have received financial support through HEDP, focusing on self-sustainability, though investment proposals from HEIs were encouraged to leverage intellectual capital and industry collaborations more effectively.

The meeting also addressed the challenges faced by Affiliated Colleges, with suggestions for increasing project activities tailored to regional needs and enhancing sustainability plans for IT and quality assurance initiatives.