LAHORE : Punjab Minister for Higher Education Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfraz has said that the provincial government is set to identify the deficiencies and constraints of the higher education.
Addressing press conference here Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfraz said that our finding so far have led us to believe that there are still issues of access, quality, governance, curriculum and standardization which prevail in the higher education sector of the Punjab.
He said that taking these issues as challenge, the Higher Education Department of Punjab, under the Prime Minister’s 100 days plan shall be ready to mid November 2018, to present blueprint of our strategic short term, medium term, and long term commitments with the objective to transform the higher education sector of the province.
While talking about the Higher Education Department, he said that since 2008 this department had been run in random fashion through sporadic policy interjections in the absence of a well thought out policy document which could have provided a direction for the future.
Raja Yasir Hamayun said that we had started consultations and the debate with all the stakeholders in order to formulate a holistic document of higher education policy for Punjab. We would reveal the key areas of our focus in the blueprint of the PM’s 100 days plan, he added.
He further stated that we had decided to provide a world class university in each of nine division of the province. In this regard, we would upscale any existing universities in a Division and also establish three new universities in the province over the next five years, one each in Northern, Central and the southern Punjab.
The Provincial Minister said that all the Higher Educational Institutions or colleges in a particular division would be affiliated with their respective particular Divisional University which shall lead to better oversight and handholding of these colleges by their university.
Raja Yasir Hamayun said, “We also planned to launch a pilot project to conduct an international level assessment test in order to bring uniform evaluation of our college and universities graduates.”
