Committee to make recommendations for improvement in higher education: governor

Karachi: A high-powered committee will soon be constituted that will make recommendations for improvement in the provincial higher education sector, Sindh Governor Mohammad Zubair said on Saturday.

The committee would propose measures that would help bring overall improvement in the province’s public sectors universities and meet international education standards, the governor stated while presiding over a meeting with Karachi University  Vice Chancellor Professor Dr M Ajmal Khan, philanthropist Abdul Haseeb Khan and other officials. 

The agenda of the meeting was to make the KU’s Institute of Pharmaceutical Research (IPR) functional. 

The governor said universities were the most significant symbols of any society as they determined the status of a country in the world.

“Our universities need research-based education for preparation of our youth to face the upcoming challenges of their professional life with resounding success.”

He suggested that the provincial and federal Higher Education Commissions should join hands in this regard to facilitate the research culture at varsities.

He said coordination and cooperation between our universities with reputed foreign educational institutions could be a way forward in this regard.

Zubair said the public sector universities should pay special attention towards imparting research-based education to their students. “A special task force should be constituted in every university to achieve this goal.”

Expressing his astonishment over non-functioning of the KU’s Institute of Pharmaceutical Research, the governor said it was very unfortunate that the IPR was still lying idle despite construction of its building almost 26 years ago. He asked the KU VC to include the IPR’s matter of approval in the next varsity’s senate meeting.

He said that HEC would also be requested to issue grant for the IPR so that it could be made functional as soon as possible. He observed that pharmaceutical sciences were among the most rapidly changing sectors, where new research appeared on a daily basis with regards to cure of various ailments.

The governor said functioning of this institute would not only assist and guide pharmacy students but would also facilitate research in pharmaceutical sciences according to the present environment and requirements.

Zubair opined that regular meetings of syndicate and senate of the public sector universities were essential to resolve the pending and disputed matters.

KU VC Professor Dr M Ajmal Khan briefed the governor about the reasons, circumstances and bottlenecks in non-functioning of this institute.

The main reason of non-functioning of the institute was lack of funds, he said.  

Abdul Hasseeb Khan, who facilitated construction of the IPR building, said it had been approved by the HEC, the law ministry and the varsity’s syndicate.

He said the prime reason of its non-functioning was the fact that the IPR’s proposal was never submitted before the varsity’s senate for approval. He asked the governor to include the matter as an agenda item in the next senate’s meeting.