HEC Chairman Urges Academia To Focus On Substance In Education

The Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr Tariq Banuri Wednesday urged the scholar and researchers to focus on the substance, whether it was education or research, and go away from the obsession of images certification for better future outcomes in the career

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Aug, 2019 ):The Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr Tariq Banuri Wednesday urged the scholar and researchers to focus on the substance, whether it was education or research, and go away from the obsession of images certification for better future outcomes in the career.

It was the responsibility of every academia to assist the government and private sector through their research work, countering the challenges being faced by them in current prevailing economic situation, he said while addressing the 7th HEC Outstanding Research Awards, held here.

'Degree is just a piece of paper, but knowledge is power and nobody can take away from you,' he maintained.

Unfortunately, he said, in past people was just involved in increasing the number of degree and certificates, but to pay head to quality of education.

Now, HEC was focusing on quality education at all levels from undergraduate to Masters and PhDs, he added.

Banuri said, keeping in view the country's current economic situation, the HEC was introducing number of programmes at academic levels to come up with the recommendations how to sort out the issues in that regard.

The 'National Challenge Fund' would be set up for inviting universities to undertake and present research papers before the HEC that lead to the solution of problems.

The other initiative, he said, was the establishment of 'Local Challenge Fund' with an objective to sort out the problems of their respective areas for providing them better community service.

The chairman said, the aim of these awards was to acknowledge the extraordinary contribution of the Pakistani faculty and thus promote a competitive research culture in higher education.

During the ceremony the awards were conferred under nine disciplines included, Natural Sciences , Biological Sciences , Agriculture Sciences, Health Sciences, Computer Science, Social Sciences, Pure Engineering, Management and Arts & Humanities.

The total number of 490 applications were received out of which 52 awards have been selected in four category comprising, Best Research Paper, Best Young Research Paper, Best Innovator and Best Book.

Quaide-i-Azam University scored eight awards while Comsats University five, University of Agriculture Faisalabad 4, GIKI-Topi 3 and University of Punjab, Bahauddin Zakria University-Multan, LUMS , NIBGE , UET-Taxila received 2 awards each.

Similarly, GCU-Faisalabad , Hazara University, KMU-Peshawar, PIEAS-Islamabad, University of Karachi, MUET-Jamshero, University of Peshawar, PIDE Islamabad, University of Malakand, University of Lahore, IMS-Peshawar, UMT-Lahore, GCU-Lahore, FCCU- Lahore, Air University-Islamabad, IBGE-Islamabad, NDU-Islamabad, NUML-Islamabad, NUST-Islamabad, MUST-Mirpur-AJK, HITECH University-Taxila and GPGC-Bannu got one award each.