Vision

There has been considerable success at the HEC in the last six years.

• The number of universities has increased from 74 to 129 i.e. 74 in the first 56 years, and 55 in the last six years.
• University enrolment has approximately tripled from 135,000 to 315,000.
• Access to higher education has more than doubled from 2.2 per cent to 4.7 per cent.
• Women’s enrolment has increased from 37 to 46 per cent.
• About 5,000 scholars are pursuing their PhD in foreign countries, and another 4,500 are pursuing the degree locally.
• The National Research Programme for universities, the Pakistan Education and Research Network with 10 gbps bandwidth and video-conferencing facilities at more than 70 universities/institutions and the National Digital Library with 45,000 e-books and 23,000 full text journals have been established.
• There have been curriculum reforms and the criteria for Masters and Phd degrees have been set.
• Quality enhancement cells have been established in 30 universities and leadership training has been provided to vice chancellors.
• Pakistan has been called a ‘rising star’ in Science Watch, and independent assessments by the World Bank and the British Council have all been praiseworthy.
• Five years ago no Pakistani university ranked among the top 600 universities of the world in the Times Higher Education Supplement. Today, five do.

Writes present Chairman Higher Education Commission, Dr. Javaid R. Laghari. (“Challenges in Higher Education”, Dawn, January 4, 2010)

This is admitted by a person who belongs to the “rival” party of the last “dictator” we had, and the last person who cared about what we call “Education”. That’s where we say, visions cannot be denied.