ISLAMABAD: President Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS), Professor Dr Ata ur Rehman on Friday said that higher education is central to national development process and ought to be treated as a core subject at the federal level.
In a press conference here, he said HEC is the central regulatory body which links the education to the national development projects, enabling the universities to produce the skilled and productive manpower according to the needs of the market.
The commission provides formula-based funding to the universities at provincial level according to the enrolment of the students, he added.
In case of devolution, how verification of the degrees of parliamentarians would be handled, he said.
He said Constitutional Reforms Committee has discussed to devolve HEC considering it as a part of Ministry of Education, In fact, HEC is a regulatory body formed under federal ordinance and working under Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, he added.
Higher education is far more important than nuclear progress in the country as no war can be won without excelling in education. “Deterioration of education system lead toward weakening the country,” he said.
Dr Ata called for continuing HEC at federal level, while keeping in view its excellent performance during the past eight years.
About the ongoing progress level of higher education sector, he said the country will lag behind if HEC is delegated to the provinces, Dr Ata said.
The present government has taken an excellent step by setting the target to increase education funding upto 7 per cent of GDP till the year 2015, he said. Presently, the country is spending 1.2 per cent on education which is less than the countries like Africa, he added.
About the achievements of higher education sector, Dr Ata informed that university enrolment reached to only 135,000 during the 56 year period from 1947 to 2003 but it increased to about 400,000 in the subsequent 5 year period from 2004 to 2008.
National University of Science and Technology, ranked at 350 in overall world university rankings (Times UK Higher Education Ranking, November 2009).
In the disciplinary rankings, University of Karachi was ranked at 223 in the world, NUST at 260, Quaid-e-Azam University at 270 in the world in the field of natural sciences.
More than 4,000 students are currently receiving PhD scholarships in leading universities abroad, along with an equal number in Pakistan.
Every student in every public sector university has access to 45,000 textbooks and research monographs from 220 international publishers as well as to 25,000 international research journals completely free of charge, Dr Ata said.
There were only 59 universities and degree awarding institutes in the year 2001 in the country which grew to 127 by 2008, he said.
