HESSA holds women’s leadership programme

Islamabad : The USAID’s Higher Education System Strengthening Activity (HESSA) organised a two-day event for women leaders of 16 partner universities in the public sector. The group of 24 women leaders included pro-rectors, deans, department chairs, heads of student services, and faculty members. The event was hosted at the National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) - a USAID’s HESSA partner university. Pro-Rector Academics (NUST) Dr Osman Hasan opened the event as chief guest.

This event marked the conclusion of a seven-month training programme on Women’s Leadership. The training programme included face-to-face workshops, a study tour to the University of Alabama, online boot camps with weekly assignments, and monthly teleconference meetings with mentors and ended with a showcasing event.

The objective of this programme was to equip women leaders with skills that would allow them to navigate their careers more effectively. This training programme is one piece of the comprehensive leadership suite that the USAID’s HESSA offers for all levels of university leadership.

The programme was led by Dr. Susan Carvalho, Dean of Graduate School at the University of Alabama, and facilitated by US faculty Dr. Dana Patton, Dr. Karri Holley, Dr. Lisa Pawloski, and Dr. Delores Robinson. Over the course of seven months, the participants identified a strategic initiative and obtained institutional approvals for implementation. The weeks in the US, the online course, and the teleconference coaching sessions focused on developing these strategic initiatives aligned with USAID HESSA’s objectives. The showcasing event allowed women leaders the opportunity to present their strategic projects to their peers and instructors as well as to the incoming cohort

of women leaders joining

the same program in

January 2023.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Dr. Ayesha Razzaque, deputy chief of Party HESSA, congratulated the women leaders on successfully completing the training programme. She emphasised the importance of building inclusive campuses and told participants that as HESSA alumnae, they will always have access to HESSA’s resources. Dr. Carvalho, the lead instructor, mentioned that the showcasing event, like the rest of the Women’s Leadership Programme, intertwined leadership skills inextricably with the strategic initiatives, thus putting skills and concepts into practice.

HESSA is a five-year, $19 million, USAID-funded programme that aims to introduce sustainable higher education reforms and work with Pakistani universities on international best practices in teaching, research, student support, and governance.