Higher Education Commission To Assist In Job Placement Of PhD Degree Holders

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) will support and facilitate the PhD holders of Pakistan in their efforts for employment on merit and quality.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Oct, 2018 ) :The Higher Education Commission (HEC) will support and facilitate the PhD holders of Pakistan in their efforts for employment on merit and quality.

This was stated by Dr Tariq Banuri, Chairman, Higher Education Commission (HEC) in a statement on Thursday.

In response to requests from unemployed PhD degree holders, the HEC had established an e-portal i.e. http://www.hec.gov.pk/english/services/Pages/PhD-DB.aspx in order to collect basic information. The e portal was launched in August 2018.

As of today, 170 PhD holders have registered themselves. Out of these, 126 PhDs are unemployed.

Most of the unemployed have availed the Interim Placement of Fresh PhD (IPFP) opportunity provided by HEC for a period of one year. Under HEC rules, host institutions of the IPFP Programme are required to advertise the respective positions and give the IPFP scholars the opportunity to compete for jobs.

However, some of the scholars were unsuccessful in securing employment at their host university or elsewhere.

The HEC has offered around 4000 jobs to fresh PhD holders through the IPFP Programme in universities and 80 per cent were inducted in the same universities and the others were inducted by other higher education institutions.

The HEC is also looking at the patterns of unemployment. Most of the PhDs are in Chemistry, Agriculture, Biology and Physics. We are looking closely at these programmes to check how to enhance the employability of their graduates, the Chairman said.

For the unemployed, who have approached the HEC, the HEC has written to various institutions to consider them if they qualify and positions are available in the respective disciplines on competition basis.

Dr Banuri said the HEC also plans to conduct an orientation workshop for the PhDs to guide them in pursuance of their careers. The fresh PhDs will be guided in preparation of CVs and developing skills to apply for positions in colleges as well, as only seven per cent of college teachers are PhD holders in Pakistan. He said HEC will conduct gap assessment and will offer capacity building programmes.