Staff Report
LAHORE: Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Chairman Prof Dr Nizam Uddin has said that restructuring colleges, introduction of best education system and improvement of infrastructure would be his priority to bring reforms in the provincial higher education sector.
He was addressing a seminar on “Role of Punjab Higher Education Commission in promotion of Tertiary Education in Punjab” at Institute of Social and Cultural Studies. Punjab University Vice Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran, Dean Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences Prof Dr Zakria Zakir, faculty members and a large number of students were present on the occasion.
Dr Nizam uddin said that bringing reforms and reorganising colleges would be a tough challenge where problems could be faced from various stakeholders. He said that there was need to improve performance of 516 public sector colleges in Punjab on modern lines because their result was not more than 30 percent in BA examinations. On the contrary, he said, the pass percentage of around 1,500 private colleges in graduation was more than 85 percent and that’s why people were giving preference to private institutes. He said that PHEC would ensure success of 4-year degree programs being run at public sector colleges by introducing reforms. He said that we would see that whether the curriculum of B.A. and B.Com was according to the modern needs and market driven as students were not getting jobs after graduation.
Dr Mujahid Kamran said that Dr Nizam Uddin was full of initiative and ideas and higher education sector in Punjab would improve under his dynamic leadership. Dr Zakria Zakri called upon Dr Nizam uddin to use his influence for funding of institutions of higher learning and promotion of research culture. He expressed the hope that Dr Nizam would resolve the problems being faced by the universities as well.