Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday stressed the urgent need to transform Pakistan\u2019s higher education system into a driver of national development, innovation and economic growth, asking that universities must move beyond paper-based research to produce solutions with real-world impact.
\nIn his opening remarks at the National Leadership Dialogue \u2013 From Knowledge to Impact, organized by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), the minister said Pakistan\u2019s development visions, including Vision 2010, Vision 2025 and now Uraan Pakistan, reflected a consistent resolve to build human capital, despite repeated disruptions.
\n\u201cWe tried to move forward through Vision 2025, but it was disrupted. Now we are once again trying to move in that direction through Uraan Pakistan,\u201d he said, adding that earlier initiatives had nevertheless laid the foundations of today\u2019s higher education system.
\nRecalling his tenure during Vision 2010, Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan faced an acute shortage of qualified faculty. \u201cAt that time, there were only around 350 PhDs in science and technology, and nearly 65 to 70 percent were close to retirement,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
To address this, he said, the government approved two major initiatives including the overseas scholarship scheme for 5,000 PhDs and the indigenous PhD scholarship programme for another 5,000 scholars.
\n\u201cThese 10,000 PhDs today form the backbone of our human resource base on which the system stands,\u201d he said, adding that continuity of policy was critical for long-term gains.
\nThe minister said higher education funding was also significantly enhanced during Vision 2025. \u201cWhen we took charge, the Higher Education Commission was practically shut down and its development budget was around Rs10 to 11 billion. We raised it to Rs45 billion and introduced major reforms to make higher education inclusive and competitive,\u201d he said.
\nExplaining the reform agenda, he said a two-tier university system was envisaged: one focused on broad-based access and success, and another \u201cpremier league\u201d of universities competing globally in advanced research and academic excellence.
\nHe added that national centres in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, big data, cloud computing, quantum computing and nanotechnology were also initiated.
\nHighlighting international collaboration, Ahsan Iqbal said programmes like the US\u2013Pakistan Knowledge Corridor and the UK\u2013Pakistan Knowledge Gateway were launched to bridge Pakistan\u2019s human resource gap. \u201cOur higher education participation rate is only 13 percent, compared to 25 percent in Bangladesh and 60 percent in China. This gap is holding back our expansion,\u201d he said.
\nThe minister expressed concern that much of Pakistan\u2019s research remained confined to academic journals. \u201cWe suffer from what I call academic inflation. Papers are published, but ideas that can contribute to national development are missing,\u201d he said, calling for a shift towards innovation, commercialization and industry linkages.
\nHe stressed that universities must become \u201cinnovation engines, startup launchpads and policy think tanks,\u201d capable of addressing national challenges in agriculture, industry and technology, while also producing ethically grounded and socially responsible citizens.
\nAhsan Iqbal said the government was developing a seven-pillar performance audit framework for universities, covering academic excellence, research and innovation, industry linkages, community contribution, technology enablement, governance and quality of graduates.
\n\u201cOur universities must transition into institutions of national development, and this transition has to be made in emergency mode,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday stressed the urgent need to transform Pakistan\u2019s higher education system into a driver of national development, innovation and economic growth, asking that universities must move beyond paper-based research to produce solutions with real-world impact. In his opening remarks at the National Leadership Dialogue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-520687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n