Govt To Enhance Research Budget: Shafqat Mahmood

Federal Education Minister Mian Shafqat Mahmood said on Monday that PTI government would increase budget for research, besides establishing new universities.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Dec, 2018 ) :Federal Education Minister Mian Shafqat Mahmood said on Monday that PTI government would increase budget for research, besides establishing new universities.

Addressing a three-day international conference on "Gender, Religion and Culture in Psychology: Issues, Challenges and Prospects" here at Government College University (GCU), said the importance of social sciences and humanities could not be ignored even in this age of science and technology.

Federal Education Minister also shared that he was an alumnus of GC Psychology Department, saying that he had studied psychology for six years at the Government College Lahore and later taught for two years as a young lecturer.

The conference was arranged to discuss how theories developed in the West are being adopted in the Pakistani context and how gaps in culturally embedded literature create room for research in non-Western societies. American Psychological Association Chief Executive Officer Dr Jaime Diaz Granados, Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah and the conference chairperson Dr Syeda Shahida Batool also addressed the conference.

Besides students and faculty members from 40 universities of Pakistan, seven illustrious researchers from UK, USA, Germany and Iran were also participating in the conference organised by the university's Psychology Department in collaboration with the federal and provincial higher education commissions.

On this occasion, GCU VC Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah said that universities charters were needed to be reviewed as there existed different clauses and rules of business that impeded the progress of higher education institutions. "We have very high hopes from the present government that it would do for the education that was not done before," he added.

Prof Dr Shahida Batool, the conference chairperson, said literature demonstrated that the psychology of gender and religion were knitted together in the local and national cultures as well. "The conference will cover multiple issues related to religion, gender and culture and their relevance to subjective and psychological well-being," she added.

Later, Dr Jaime Diaz Granados, in his keynote address, explored how culture formed people's thoughts and behaviors and how psychological science could inform the ways that culture shaped people's self-concepts, perceptions, relationships, and moral reasoning.

The three-day conference is spread over 20 scientific and one poster session.