LAHORE: Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on Thursday directed the Higher Education Department (HED) to relax its policy to facilitate the private sector in establishing new institutions of higher education with strict accreditation process.

He chaired a meeting of the department at his office to review the progress on the establishment of new universities in the province. Punjab Minister for Higher Education Raja Yassir Humayun Sarfraz, Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht, HED secretary Javed Iqbal Bukhari, SMBR and others were present.

The CM directed to speedily resolve issues relating to establishment of new universities as the facility would, particularly, benefit female students in remote areas.

He accorded approval to transfer state lands for the establishment of new colleges in different areas as the government was striving to extend facilities of higher education to the youth at their doorstep.

Move aims at facilitating private sector to set up institutes

He said the government was committed to transforming Punjab into a hub of higher education and improving the international ranking of universities.

He said the Lahore Technopolis would prove a game changer initiative and Punjab was being transformed through the promotion of quality education and vowed to ensure ease in education promotion for the private sector.

One of the participants in the meeting [on condition of anonymity] told Dawn that the government was going to facilitate the private sector in terms of formulating a policy to relax the conditions that are considered impediment to establishment of new institutions.

He said the government intended to do so in spite of what Supreme Court directed in its judgement about shutting down illegal campuses of private universities in the country.

On Dec 15, a three-member bench headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial heard the case and directed the HEC to award degrees [through some special arrangement] to the students who had passed out of illegal campuses. It said uniform implementation of the HEC’s policies should be ensured throughout the country.

He said the government should be mindful of the fact that policy making is the sole prerogative of HEC. “Any alteration in higher education policy in violation of guidelines would be a clear transgression against HEC’s authority,” he said.

However, Raja Yassir Humayun rejected the claim of relaxing the policy and facilitating the private sector. He told Dawn that they were only streamlining the university charter process as the [private universities] charters were passed in the assembly through private bills thereby by-passing the HED and PHEC.

He said some of the ‘genuine’ applicants had to face difficulty in achieving the charter due to the lengthy process of HED and they wanted to change the policy. However, accreditation process would be made strict. “If any institute/ university fails to meet the accreditation criteria and does not appoint competent faculty its charter will be cancelled,” he said.

Humayun said the department was just streamlining the process of awarding charter and was not relaxing the policy.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2021