HEC to get Rs45 billion in next fiscal

Islamabad: The planning, development and reforms ministry has approved Rs45 billion allocations for the development budget of the Higher Education Commission under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2018-19.

The HEC had sought Rs35 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. The current government has increased the HEC development budget by over 135 per cent during the last five years.

The HEC is an independent, autonomous, and constitutionally established institution of primary funding, overseeing, regulating, and accrediting the higher education efforts in the country. Chairing a meeting of the Annual Plan Coordination Committee here, planning minister Ahsan Iqbal said in order to compete with the developed nations in higher education, research, science and technology sectors, it was essential to allocate the maximum possible funding.

He said in the current international scenario, it was the national responsibility to move forward in the realm of knowledge and quality research. "We can compete the world only by establishing knowledge-based economy," he said.

The minister directed the HEC authorities to prepare doable projects to ensure more competitive higher education based on modern techniques and technology.