The Area Study Centres (ASC) were established under Area Study Centre Act No XLV of 1975. The Government of Pakistan has been funding these Centres through recurring and developmental budgets, research grants and through block allocations. There are 6 Area Study Centres established under the Area Study Centres Act 1975 and operating in the premises of various Universities.
To ensure smooth governance, the Vice Chancellors of Universities are made Chairman of respective BoGs and the faculty of the University is represented along with other subject experts drawn from sister Universities/Institutions. These Centers are by and large under administrative control of Ministry of Education and financed by Government of Pakistan through Higher Education Commission.
To evaluate the performance of the Centres during the recent past and to ensure that the Centres perform according to their statutory functions, the Directors of all the centres were asked to make brief presentations of their accomplishments during last five years covering governance, academics and financial parts of their performance. The underlined idea was to formulate a comprehensive strategy to overcome the issues faced by the Centres and to put the centres on the right direction.
Based on the data made available during the course of individual presentations and in the documented form, a quantifiable analysis has been carried out.
The Centres were also requested to develop a three-year Academic Development Plan (ADP) against which the performance of the Centres will be evaluated and on which will base the future funding of the Centres. The Centres were requested to submit a Three-Year Academic Development Plan to be subjected to documentary and Physical Evaluation by HEC. The Directors of the Centres made presentations regarding suggested Performance Plan for the period 2010-2013 in the premises of Higher Education Commission on Tuesday, 3rd August 2010 in presence of the Chairman, Board of Governors.