LAHORE: The government should not establish new general universities because Pakistan needs specialized universities where education and research based on social needs should be promoted.
The views were expressed by the speakers while addressing the conference session “Media, Industry and Universities Linkage for social impact research and practice” as part of the 9th Invention to Innovation Summit at PU.
Former Chairperson Punjab Higher Education Commission Dr Nizamuddin was the chief guest while the session organizer was Dr Shabir Sarwar, the heads of mass communication departments of all universities and journalists were present as panelists.
The speakers said that instead of building new universities, we have to improve the system of existing universities and at the same time promote technical education. The increase in the number of universities and students have created a wave of unemployment because students are still getting the same traditional education which is neither need of the market nor society. Countries around the world are turning their universities into centers of technical education and skill development.
Editor of the Educationist Dr Shabbir Sarwar, Director ORIC PU Dr Shakeel Ahmed, Columnist Daily Jang Dr Mujahid Mansoori, Dr Shafiq Jalandhry, Chairperson Punjab University Department of Elementary Education Prof Dr Abdul Qayyum, Dean Lahore Garrison University Dr Amir Bajwa, Dr Mian Javed, Dr Farasat Rasool, Director Coordination PHEC Rana Tanveer Qasim, Atif Butt, Saber Subhani, Mohsin Ali Turk, Mian Habib Ullah, Dr Sardar Asghar Iqbal, Tayyab Bhatti, Zulqernain Tahir, Ummer Farwa, Yousaf Abbasi and others participated.
The speakers also expressed their views on the role of media and universities in the betterment of the society. The speakers highlighted the importance of strengthening the relationship between the media industry and academia so that instead of wasting the talent of the students, it leads to their development and the problems of the society can also be solved with it.
They also proposed measures to raise the quality of research in Pakistani universities, to meet the needs of the market and society, as well as the accountability of the researchers who received funds of billions of rupees from HEC.
