ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has finalized the groundwork for establishing a regional centre of National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE) in Punjab.
The HEC, under its Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP) project, aims to strengthen its NAHE – an academic wing of HEC launched in 2019 to improve the quality of teaching, research, and governance in higher education institutions (HEIs) across Pakistan.
Establishment of four NAHE regional centres was envisioned during the life of HEDP project.
To address the immediate need of quality training facilities for academia in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, two chapters were notified in these two provinces, last year.
Moving forward, two more are to be established in Punjab and Sindh.
In this regard, a two-day consultative workshop was held with the regional stakeholders of Punjab, for establishing the NAHE regional centre in Lahore.
The workshop was chaired by Programme Coordinator, HEDP, Dr Mahmoodul Hassan Butt, while more than 40 stakeholders, including vice chancellors and deans were present.
The participants provided their valuable inputs on the envisioned role of the NAHE regional centre and how it would build the capacities of faculty and administration in performing their roles more efficiently.
The participants suggested that the centre should also be replicated in other regions of the province to meet their needs.
The implementation of the revised Undergraduate Education Policy (UEP) was also discussed at length, and HEIs extended their support to HEC for its implementation.
They were also briefed on the upcoming HEC initiatives to further improve the higher education system in the country. They suggested involving universities in designing capacity building programmes for faculty and administration.
Dr Salvador Malo, a World Bank consultant, was also engaged during the session via video conference. He is assisting HEDP in assessment of learning outcomes through the use of an international test at national level in Pakistan.
The international test has been contextualized for use in Pakistan with his help. Dr Malo is assisting HEDP to develop and embed flexible integral education and promote relevant competencies and critical learning skills via revised UEP implementation.
