Higher Education Commission of Pakistan: Shaping the Future of Education

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan stands as the apex regulatory body, playing a crucial role in overseeing, funding, and accrediting higher education institutions (HEIs) across the nation. Established in 2002, the HEC is instrumental in shaping Pakistan's higher education landscape by promoting academic excellence, research innovation, and global engagement.

Historical Context and Establishment

The HEC was constituted in 2002 under the Higher Education Commission Ordinance, superseding the University Grants Commission (UGC) that had been in operation since 1974. The establishment of the HEC marked a significant shift towards a more autonomous and performance-oriented approach to higher education governance in Pakistan. The commission also facilitated the development of higher educational system in the country with the main purpose of upgrading the universities and degree awarding institutes in the country to be focal point of the high learning of education, research and development.

At the time of establishment of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, the country had only one institution of higher learning, University of the Punjab and among forty colleges expanded to four provinces of Pakistan. Education policy revised by Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan, the government established various universities and colleges in all over the country.

Early Emphasis on Higher Education

In the 1960s, the financial policies and economic programs introduced by President of Pakistan Ayub Khan greatly emphasized to importance of higher education in the country. A significant proportion of the budget was actually spent to promote higher education efforts in the country. Thesis written by Usman Ali Isani pointed out that 912 million rupees were spent annually for the fiscal period of 1960-65 in a joint collaboration led by Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (the then called Ministry of Education), University Grants Commission and Planning Commission. Colleges were transformed into full-scale research universities and special research institutes were established in all over the country. According to the calculations performed by the Statistics Division and published by Isani, around 430,000 students were enrolled in different universities to pursue their higher education over the fiscal period of 1960-65.

From 1965 to 1971, the government spent 173.8 million rupees on the education sector as opposed to actual allocations of ₨. After the 1971 war with India which saw the separation of East Pakistan as Bangladesh, the new education policy was announced with the implementation of nationalization program in 1972, by the Pakistan Peoples Party. Under this policy, all two-year colleges were transformed to university status under the state-controlled policy, and privatized universities were nationalized.

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Organizational Structure and Governance

The HEC operates as an autonomous statutory body under the federal government of Pakistan. It is governed by a Chairman appointed by the Prime Minister, supported by an Executive Director and a team of professionals. The Commission comprises various divisions responsible for policy formulation, funding, quality assurance, and international collaborations.

Quality Assurance and Accreditation

The HEC plays a central role in ensuring the quality of higher education in Pakistan through its Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). The QAA develops and implements quality assurance frameworks, including the Pakistan Precepts, Standards, and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (PSG-2023), which provide a comprehensive set of standards for institutional and programmatic evaluations.

International Collaborations

The HEC actively engages in international collaborations to enhance the global standing of Pakistan's higher education sector.

Impact and Future Initiatives

The HEC's initiatives are poised to have a significant impact on the future of higher education in Pakistan. The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan is a cornerstone institution in the country's higher education landscape. Through its strategic initiatives in quality assurance, international cooperation, and policy development, the HEC strives to create a higher education system that is inclusive, innovative, and globally competitive.

Reforms and Progress Under Atta-ur-Rahman

The Higher Education Commission (colloquially known as HEC) is a statutory body formed by the Government of Pakistan which was established in 2002 under the Chairmanship of Atta-ur-Rahman.

To facilitate distance education and to promote information technology, a number of facilitating measures were taken by Atta-ur-Rahman. As of 2020, Pakistan has 85% teledensity with 183 million cellular, 98 million 3G/4G and 101 million broadband subscribers, due to the foundations laid by Atta-ur-Rahman of the IT and telecom industry during 2000-2008.

International Recognition and Awards

Since the reforms in higher education have been carried out in 2002, commission has received praise from the international higher education observers. American academic Fred M. Atta-ur-Rahman has won four international awards for the revolutionary changes in the higher education sector. The Austrian government conferred its highest civil award (“Grosse Goldene Ehrenzeischen am Bande") in recognition of his eminent contributions.

Nature, a leading science journal, has also written a number of editorials and articles about the transformation brought about in Pakistan in the higher education sector under the commission. In an article entitled "Pakistan Threat to Indian Science" published in the leading daily newspaper Hindustan Times, India, it has been reported that C. N. R. Rao, chairman of the Indian Prime Minister's Scientific Advisory Council made a presentation to the Indian Prime Minister at the rapid progress made by Pakistan in the higher education sector under the leadership of Atta-ur-Rahman. It was reported that as result of the reforms brought about in Pakistan " Pakistan may soon join China in giving India serious competition in science". "Science is a lucrative profession in Pakistan. It has tripled the salaries of its scientists in the last few years.".

Atta-ur-Rahman was conferred the highest national Award of the Republic of China, the Friendship Award, in September 2014, and then elected as Academician (Foreign Member) of Chinese Academy of Sciences, a prestigious honour for his contributions to develop strong linkages between Pakistan and China in various fields of higher education, science and technology. The President of China Xi Jinping conferred the highest scientific award of China to the Pakistani scientist Atta-ur-Rahman in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on 10 January 2020.

Continued Reforms Under Javaid Laghari

The next chairman Javaid Laghari continued the reforms initiated earlier but focused mostly on quality and research. During his four-year tenure, emphasis was given to commercialization of research carried out in the universities and units to commercialize university research established in most public sector universities.

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Science and Technology Development

Science is a lucrative profession in Pakistan and the official science policy in Pakistan plays a major role in the development of budget in the country for fiscal years. Since revitalized in 2002, the commission's budget increased up to ~340.2% in terms of fiscal period of 2001-06. By 2008, as a result of its policy and financial successes, most universities had become strong proponents of the Higher Education Commission. Quality had increased significantly and several institutions were on their way to becoming world-class institutions. Many expatriate Pakistanis returned from abroad with access to competitive salaries.

Research and Development

In an analysis of scientific research productivity of Pakistan, in comparison to Brazil, Russia, India, and China ("BRIC" countries), Thomson Reuters has applauded the developments that have taken place as a result of the reforms, since Pakistan has emerged as the country with the highest increase in the percentage of high highly cited papers in comparison to the BRIC countries.

Research output out of Pakistan increased by over 50% within two years which was the second highest increase worldwide. According to Scimago world scientific database, if Pakistan continues at the same pace, its ranking will increase from 43 to 27 globally by 2017.

The reforms begun by Atta-ur-Rahman in 2003-2008 have continued over the subsequent decade and according to the Web of Science report, there was a 300% growth in research publications in 2019 over the decade, with 2019 marking the first year in which Pakistan was ranked above the world average in research. In 2019, Pakistan produced 300% more publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection than in 2010. In the decade of 2010-2019, more than half of Pakistan’s research was published in journals with Impact Factor. The global influence of Pakistan’s research is increasing as scientists in the country are publishing more in top quartile journals. The Category Normalized Citation Impact of Pakistan’s publications (which measures publications’ impact against their peers worldwide) has risen from 0.67 to 1.03.

Distance Education and Technology

Among the objectives of this project a primary objective of introduction of Video Conferencing facility, launched by Atta-ur-Rahman, is to enhance students teachers interaction through distance learning, bridge the gap of good faculty, meet the shortage of faculty members at the universities located at far-flung areas and ultimately to uplift the standard of education in Pakistan. Eminent scholars from Pakistan deliver interactive lectures on various topics and recorded lectures from foreign universities are also broadcast. The lectures delivered/broadcast are aimed to develop fundamental concepts, to enhance the critical thinking for under-graduate and graduate students and to discuss cutting edge technologies/research work in the fields of modern sciences for students and faculty members. Interactive lectures from foreign universities are also arranged. Nobel Laureates/Eminent scientists/researchers are invited to deliver lectures to share their knowledge/research work. The nationwide distance education programme is being implemented by Latif Ebrahim Jamal National Science Information Center, which is an integral part of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences at University of Karachi. Currently there are more than 150 universities across Pakistan which are availing this facility for conducting lectures, meetings and other events etc.

Huawei Cloud Stack delivered an end-to-end dual-region DR solution for HEC, ensuring the ongoing stability of the National Education Cloud. Leveraging innovative products like cloud-native containers and big data platforms, this solution elevates higher education services in Pakistan to the next level and spurs innovation. Meanwhile, with a large scalable hybrid cloud platform that offers ICT technologies as services, Huawei Cloud Stack is also contributing to the development of ICT professionals in Pakistan.

Pak Austria Fachhochschule

Pakistan's first foreign engineering university (Pak Austria Fachhochschule) was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in 2020. It incorporates a hybrid model involving a Fachhochschule half and a postgraduate research half, with a central technology park for promotion of innovations. There are eight foreign universities collaborating (three Austrian and five Chinese) to train the faculty, control quality, and eventually offer their degrees to selected students. It is located in Haripur, Hazara Division, about 50 miles from Islamabad.

Challenges and Criticisms

In spite of its achievements, it was criticized by Pervez Hoodbhoy, a nuclear physicist and a professor at the Quaid-e-Azam University, who maintained that "commission have made higher education more expensive.". These views have been opposed by numerous eminent national and international scholars and scientists in the country and abroad. A strongly worded article against Hoodbhoy's views was published by Abdul Qadeer Khan, who termed commission as "a strategic organisation.". Another work on HEC's praise was authored by Mansoor Akbar Kundi, former Vice Chancellor of the Gomal University and later Executive Director of Higher Education Commission.

Efforts to Preserve Autonomy

In 2010, the altering of Eighteenth Amendment, whose clause was directed to devolved the commission, was strongly resisted by academicians, politicians, social activists and media personality; a strong lobby for the protection of commission was instituted by scientists Atta-ur-Rahman and Javaid Laghari. Scientists and academicians from the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, held a nationwide conference in 2011 under the Presidency of Atta-ur-Rahman to gain public support for the protection of commission at the public level.

During this ongoing debate, the then chairman, Javaid Laghari who was former technocrat Senator from Pakistan Peoples Party and President of a private university SZABIST as well, declared that the devolution of the commission unconstitutional. Laghari also went on a media and public speaking and OpEd writing campaign to save the higher education sector from the clutches of politicians. The status of the Executive Director as equivalent to a Federal Secretary was taken away by the Pakistan Peoples Party government and its powers to approve projects through holding Departmental Developmental Working Projects (DDWP) of a value of up to 100 million rupees were also abolished, thereby greatly reducing its powers and effectiveness. Massive anti-Pakistan Peoples Party demonstration broke out in all over the country over this issue in 2011 and student unions gathered in the federal government installations to oppose the merger.

In 2012, two petitions signed by Atta ur Rahman were filed before the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the devolution of the commission and to preserve its autonomy. The Supreme Court approved the petitions, and Javaid Laghari, the then chairman, in the HEC submission to the Supreme Court, opposed the devolution on constitutional grounds, thereby preventing its devolution under the 18th amendment and guaranteeing its autonomy.

Chairpersons of the HEC

The following is a list of people who have served as the chairman of the Higher Education Commission. One term lasts four years. Atta-ur-Rehman completed his tenure in 2006, but was given another term till 2010.

Mission and Objectives

Mission of HEC: Facilitating Institutes of Higher Learning to Serve as an Engine of Growth for the Socio-Economic Development of Pakistan.

Implement three tier integrated system of tertiary education
Research innovation and commercialization
Enhanced equitable access to higher education
Excellence in leadership, governance and management
Increased quality with highest academic qualifications
Enhanced quality of curricular content for all levels of education offered
Planned ICT for education
Financial management to sustain growth

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