Industry-academia linkages stressed to uplift economy

LAHORE:Punjab Minister for Higher Education Raja Yasir Humayun has stressed the need for promoting industry-academia linkages to resolve social problems and uplifting economy.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of 7th International Conference on Research in Education (ICORE-19) titled “Teachers Education: 21st Century Challenges” at the Punjab University here on Tuesday.

PU Vice Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmad, Dean Faculty of Education Prof Dr Abid Hussain Ch, Director IER Prof Dr Rafaqat Ali Akbar, faculty members, students, delegates from the USA, UK, Philippine, KSA, France, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, Ireland and New Zealand and researchers from all provinces of the country participated in the conference.

Raja Yasir Humayun said academia must come forward and play its role what was being done by the universities in the first world countries and the government would extend maximum support in this regard. He said academia was main advisory body in all developed countries and the research being done at universities was not only being used by the industry but by the government institutions and development sector as well.

Prof Niaz Ahmad said quality education mainly depended on the quality of teachers and graduates. He said since good raw material produced quality products, therefore quality education and training must be imparted at schools so that universities could produce good graduates. He said higher education sector in Pakistan was facing serious challenges as there was about 1/50 student-teacher ratio against the national standard of 1/20 and international standard of 1/10. He said we were facing a shortage of PhD teachers and only around 35 percent teachers at universities in Pakistan were PhD.

The VC said hardly 10 percent applicants could get admission in higher education sector in Pakistan while there was 100 percent enrollment of applicants in higher education in advanced countries. He said there was need to develop a mechanism for flawless construction of question paper and evaluation of answer books, removing all deficiencies in this regard. He said it was the duty of universities to create new knowledge which could resolve issues being faced by the country as well as society.

Dr Rafaqat Ali Akbar said the conference was attended by renowned scientists in the field of education from various countries while researchers, educators, practitioners and professionals were also participating. He said the researchers were participating for presentation of research based knowledge, experiences, new advancements, research results and innovations in the field of education.

He also said in the conference, about 150 research papers by national and international experts would be presented. He said the conference would contribute to achieve national and international educational goals and targets.