Top professionals discuss ways to elevate status of higher education

Islamabad: Higher education professionals from across Pakistan and the United States converged in town for a two-day activity where intellectual contributions were made to identify challenges common to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), to build linkages with the global higher education community, to create an interface for stakeholder engagement by building synergies, and to brainstorm possible solutions to elevate the status of higher education in Pakistan.

The occasion was an inaugural stakeholders’ consultative meeting organized by the USAID-funded Higher Education System Strengthening Activity (HESSA) project. Titled ‘Building Strategic Alliances,’ the event was attended by vice chancellors, pro vice chancellors, deans, senior faculty members, directors, and heads of departments of public sector HEIs.

The Chief of Party of HESSA, Dr. M Aslam Chaudhry—research professor of economics at the University of Utah—introduced the scope of the project and its implementation approach. He shared that one of the project’s goals is to drive the system towards delivering market-driven education and research for enhancing youth employability. Dr. Aslam shared the limelight with Dr. Frankie Laanan and Dr. Randy McCrillis from the University of Utah, and Dr. Steve Burian from the University of Alabama.

The visiting delegates discussed different dimensions of the project including leadership and institutional governance, education research and entrepreneurship, and students’ support services.

MNA and Chairman of the Pakistan Engineering Council, Engr. Najeeb Haroon, chaired the activity, flanked by Dr. Akbar Zaidi, Executive Director, IBA Karachi, Principal Investigator, University of Utah, Dr. Michael E Barber, and VC of NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Dr. Sarosh Lodhi.