| NAHE, HEC to Begin Capacity Building Trainings for Employees | NAHE, HEC to Begin Capacity Building Trainings for Employees | <p style="text-align:justify;">Islamabad, December 21, 2020: The National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE) is organizing a series of trainings under its capacity building programme. This includes trainings for HEC staff in collaboration with the National Information Technology Board (NITB). </p><p style="text-align:justify;">The trainings will begin on Tuesday, 22nd December, with a comprehensive session on E-office procedure. E-office is an electronic system of office and operational management which will help make functions more efficient and improve accountability at HEC. </p><p style="text-align:justify;">The programme is being implemented across various ministries in the government, and has been approved by the Federal Cabinet and the National e-Government Council.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">The capacity building programme will have weekly workshops for HEC employees. It will last for next four weeks, and is expected to train more than 600 individuals. This will help support staff as services increasingly move online and ensure efficiency, consistency and transparency across the board. </p><p style="text-align:justify;">NAHE is established as a stand-alone, autonomous institution operating under the auspices of HEC to improve the quality of teaching, research and governance in higher education institutions across Pakistan. It is envisioned as the premier institution for quality research and teaching related to all aspects of higher education in Pakistan. This series of trainings is one of multiple ongoing NAHE endeavours at HEC'.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">===============</p> | 21-12-2020 12:01:48 | <img alt="" src="/english/PublishingImages/ThematicImages/HEC%20ICON-15.png" style="BORDER:0px solid;" /> | https://hec.gov.pk/english/news/news/Pages/NAHE-Trainings.aspx |
| Hybrid Education Vital to Build Non-Elitist Society: President | Hybrid Education Vital to Build Non-Elitist Society: President | <p style="text-align:justify;"><a href="/english/news/news/PRPics/ESP.jpeg"><img src="/english/news/news/PRPics/ESP.jpeg" alt="" style="margin:5px;" /></a><br></p><p style="text-align:justify;">Islamabad, December 17, 2020: President of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi has said that Pakistan is moving towards developing a non-elitist society and in this pursuit the hybrid mode of learning can play a vital role. He said that Pakistan is quickly transitioning into an era, wherein hybrid education is changing the whole spectrum of society by opening new possibilities and opportunities. It has made knowledge dynamic and non-static. </p><p style="text-align:justify;">He made these remarks while addressing the closing session of the 3-day Pak-UK Education Gateway virtual conference entitled "Rethinking and Reshaping a Resilient Higher Education System" that concluded on Thursday. The conference was jointly organized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the British Council. Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Mr. Shafqat Mahmood and Chairman HEC Tariq Banuri also attended the session.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">The three days of conference brought together scholars and higher education experts from the UK and Pakistan to share how universities in both the countries have responded to COVID scenario, and discussed further strengthening of strategic transnational education partnership between the two countries. Various sessions of the conference focused on building a sustainable future for international higher education, role of higher education leadership during COVID, international collaborations and internationalisation of higher education, future of distance learning, and mobility programmes.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">The President appreciated the HEC-BC partnerships, which have led to development of Pakistan's first Open and Distance Learning Policy. He emphasized that COVID, besides its catastrophic impacts on all the spheres of life, will leave strong imprints on the education system, and that the situation has created opportunities by making institutions adopt new highways towards progress. </p><p style="text-align:justify;">Dr. Alvi asserted that the hybrid learning has made it easier for women to get educated and empowered, adding that it is one of the Government's priorities to make education less expensive and less-elitist. He said that the Pakistani universities are providing virtual and open learning much cheaper, compared to the rest of the world, and stressed the need for teachers to adapt themselves to the new teaching requirements. "The faster we move, the sooner we will make it easier for people to acquire education in the prevailing situation." </p><p style="text-align:justify;">He also highlighted the need for development of a certification system to examine and assess students. He also underlined the significance of the Pakistani diaspora in the UK and across the world, especially professionals, in terms of their role in the uplift of systems in the country.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">Minister Shafqat Mahmood said that 1.5 million Pakistani youth are critical asset of the country, and the Government is committed to investing in youth development to position them in the global market. Acknowledging the paramount importance of UK's education system, he said that Pakistan is also putting strenuous efforts to make its higher education system compatible with the best higher education sectors of the world. "In this pursuit, the contribution of partners like the UK government and the British Council, who are consistently lending their hand to us, are highly valuable." </p><p style="text-align:justify;">The Minister said that Pakistan appreciated the openness of the British people towards the Pakistani diaspora. He said the programmes like Pak-UK Education Gateway can prove to be very helpful in rethinking and reshaping a resilient higher education sector. He admired the role of this programme in developing the Pakistan's Open and Distance Learning Policy. </p><p style="text-align:justify;">Chairman HEC Tariq Banuri congratulated the conference participants on the second anniversary of Pakistan-UK Education Gateway. He emphasised that it is high time to strengthen international collaboration to share not only the best practices but also the challenges the entire world is facing in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak. "We have to learn from each other and advance our educational agenda forward." He said that as the COVID has changed the world, including the higher education sector, the HEC adopted an eight-component approach to mitigate the disruption. He also dilated on the measures taken for technology preparedness, teacher preparedness, student preparedness, course development, laboratories and libraries readiness, examination and evaluation mechanism, and student access to higher education.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">In his remarks, Minister for South Asia, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Tariq Mehmood Ahmed said the HEC-BC partnership has ushered a new era of bilateral engagement and productive outcomes. He said that the UK government attaches high importance to supporting education in Pakistan. He informed the participants that 35000 Pakistani students have completed their degrees in the past few years in the UK universities, while 60,000 students are currently pursuing their degrees. "These numbers will continue to grow, as we building on the success of the bilateral partnership." </p><p style="text-align:justify;">Pak-UK Education Gateway, launched in 2018, aims to further enhance partnership between the higher education sectors of Pakistan and the UK under a structured programme jointly sponsored by the Government of Pakistan and the British Council Pakistan. Key areas of collaboration are innovative and collaborative research, higher education leadership, quality assurance and standard setting, distance learning, international mobility, community engagement and transnational education. </p><p style="text-align:justify;">During the first year of execution, 21 travel and exploratory grants have enabled 50 plus faculty to meet relevant partners, seven large scale projects between UK and Pakistan have been shortlisted to embark upon crucial research ventures, strategic relationships have been developed between National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE) and Advance Higher Education UK to help enhance the governance systems and Quality Assurance Agency of the UK is closely working with HEC to help establish quality mechanisms for the higher education sector of Pakistan.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">===============</p> | 17-12-2020 13:56:32 | <img alt="" src="/english/PublishingImages/ThematicImages/HEC%20ICON-15.png" style="BORDER:0px solid;" /> | https://hec.gov.pk/english/news/news/Pages/Hybrid-Education.aspx |
| 3-day Moot on Pak-UK Education Gateway to Begin on Tuesday | 3-day Moot on Pak-UK Education Gateway to Begin on Tuesday |
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;">Islamabad, December 14, 2020: As COVID-19 has transformed
the entire world systems, the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan and
the British Council, Pakistan will hold a three-day virtual conference on
December 15-17 to discuss the future of the higher education sector in the
post-pandemic world. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;">The conference entitled “Pakistan-UK Education Gateway:
Rethinking and Reshaping a Resilient Higher Education System” will discuss key
issues facing the sector in the ‘new’ normal, the role of leadership in
building resilient HE systems, and lessons learnt from the pandemic. It will
celebrate some of the concrete contributions that the Pak-UK Gateway programme
has made so far. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;">Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood, Chairman HEC
Tariq Banuri, Executive Director HEC Dr. Shaista Sohail, British High
Commissioner to Pakistan Christian Turner, Director Education, British Council,
Nishat Riaz, Vice Chancellors, faculty, and students from both the UK and
Pakistan will attend the conference.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;">The British Council in Pakistan and the HEC launched the
Pak-UK Education Gateway in 2018, with an aim to enhance partnership between
the higher education sectors of Pakistan and the UK. The key areas of
collaboration under the joint programme include, innovative and collaborative
research, higher education leadership, quality assurance and standard setting,
distance learning, international mobility, transnational education, and
community engagement.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;">In addition to bringing partners from the Pakistan and UK
together to share best practices and lessons learnt during the pandemic and
promote cooperation and partnerships between both countries, the recipients of
the HEC-British Council joint Research Grants shall be announced along with the
upcoming British Council Scholarship schemes for young women in Pakistan.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;"><span style="color:#1f497d;">===============</span></p> | 14-12-2020 18:16:26 | <img alt="" src="/english/PublishingImages/ThematicImages/HEC%20ICON-15.png" style="BORDER:0px solid;" /> | https://hec.gov.pk/english/news/news/Pages/HEC-British-Council-Collaboration.aspx |