HEC to hire consultant to set up first technical varsity in Pakistan

Islamabad: Higher Education Commission (HEC) will be hiring an adviser to develop an intentional plan for the first technical university of Pakistan.

The commission officials informed the state minister for education regarding this decision on Tuesday during a meeting organized to check the progress made towards founding the National Skills University.

The new strategy will involve the identification of main skill development programmes to be taught in the varsity, academic and infrastructural requirements as well as assistance on developing the syllabus.

The university is targeted to provide justifiable human resource for industries as well as for agriculture.

The skill university would be established in the building of the National Institute of Science and Technical Education (NISTE) in H-8.

During the organized meeting on Tuesday, the officials of Higher Education Commission told the minister that the PC-1 for the establishment of the university has been approved while the bill for the proclamation of the charter of the university has been taken on in a National Assembly standing committee which would be reviewed in the given period of time.

As per the issued press release by the education ministry, Minister of Education Balighur Rehman instructed the Higher Education commission to conduct research on international best practices, check the models being adopted internationally for skill universities abroad plus make sure the university meets international standards in its specific domain.

He furthermore added that the varsity is being established to provide justifiable human resource for our industries and agriculture.

“The university shall serve as a supportable resource for providing technical professionals, counselors as well as skilled staff for the country and specifically, the graduates of this varsity are also expected to serve in the projects under CPEC,” he added.

The education minister said an implementation committee must be formed along with the representatives from the ministry, Higher Education commission and NISTE to accelerate the project as well as to handle the various phases of its establishment.

The project of transforming the NISTE into a technical university was declared in 2012 by the government of Pakistan People’s Party however no serious efforts were made to initiate this project.

The current government decided to complete the project in 2013 and allocated Rs100 million in the development budget of 2014-15 for it which was not spent because of the carelessness of the concerned authorities.

Once again the government reserve Rs100 million for this project in the budget for 2017-2018.

The NISTE has a large building and used to offer some technical courses and delivered training to the teachers.

Though, after the 18th Amendment, when education was regionalized to the provinces the functions of this organization were restricted to some short technical courses.

The incumbent government in 2013 made a decision to turn the NISTE into a full-fledge technical university.

“The university will deliver technical education. The varsity will produce expert graduates who will play a vital role in making the country successful,” said the chairperson of HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmed.

He said the team of higher education commission has informed the minister that there will be no delay on the part of Higher Education Commission, which is the executing agency of the project and that after the bill is approved from parliament, this technical university will start offering courses.

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