Higher education experts on Tuesday reaffirmed their resolve to uphold meritocracy, accountability and transparency in the sector through openness and merit-based selections.
Tag: higher education
Adhering to the directives of the provincial government, vice chancellors of public universities in Punjab remained absent from the VCs conference organised by Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan on Thursday.
The never-ending tussle between centre and provinces over power has again come to the fore
The cold war between the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and provincial educational authorities is seeing another battle, as both Punjab and Sindh provinces have directed vice chancellors of public sector universities in their jurisdiction not to attend a VCs’ conference called by HEC in Lahore.
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Thursday announced overseas PhD scholarships for faculty members of selected public universities across Pakistan. Titled ‘Overseas Scholarships for Public Sector Universities’, the awards will fall under the commission’s Faculty Development Programme and will entertain applications from public universities that have a human resource development (HRD) component in their Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
The United Kingdom is one of the top destinations for Pakistani students heading abroad to add to their academic credentials. And it’s understandable why. The UK has some of the oldest and most respected institutions in the world like Oxford, Cambridge, London School of Economics and Lincoln’s Inn, has plenty of expatriate population from the Indo-Pak subcontinent to make friends with and streets across many of its cities offer a variety of desi eatables should you feel the longing for culinary delights of back home. But despite the massive appeal and credible role in some of the most significant discoveries in various fields, a study has found UK varsities slipping down graduate employability rankings and their graduates becoming less appealing to employers. A latest survey conducted by a leading French HR consultancy Emerging found that graduates of universities in the UK are not a priority of recruiters anymore. The Global University Employability Survey 2017 released by highly respected Times Higher Education lists the top 150 universities in the world in terms of employability of their graduates. The survey’s results are based on feedback from top recruiters in 22 countries, who listed which university graduates they thought were most employable.
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This year, the UK secured only 10 places in the 150-strong list, which has been published for the past seven years. Four years ago, the UK had 13 universities on the list. On the contrary, China had seven universities named in the top 150 for graduate employability rankings, the same number as in 2015 ranking. But Chinese universities have since gained ground. Peking University, for example, gained three positions to grab the 14th spot from 2016’s 17th position, while Shanghai Jiao Tong University jumped to the 30th position from last year’s 53rd.
On the other hand, all of the UK universities in the list dropped down the rankings. Cambridge was 4th last year, but slid a spot to 5th in 2017 ranking. Oxford, which was named the top university in the world recently by Times Higher Education, dropped eight places to the 15th position from the previous year’s 7th. The biggest drops were experienced by the University of Edinburgh and University of Birmingham. The former dropped 46 places from 2016’s 32 to land at the 78th spot, while the latter fell to the 142nd position from the 90th, sliding 52 places down the ranking.
Causes of concern
But the question remains that despite some of the most prestigious names in education in its resume, why is the UK losing the race? For starters, experts opine that UK’s higher education has traditionally exhibited weakness in linking with companies.
Other key factors include the steady rise of Asian universities and the loss of advantage of offering courses in English. More and more universities around the world are now offering degree programs that have English as the medium of instruction. This has certainly taken the edge away from universities in the US and UK. Laurent Dupasquier, associate director of Emerging, agrees. “English has become the lingua franca of the university world,” he said. Even countries that earlier remained confined to offering education in native languages, such as France, Germany and China, are now offering degree courses in English.
Rising cost of higher education is also becoming a major consideration, with many top candidates of UK universities now heading to countries like Germany that not only offer top-notch education in English, but also do not break the student’s bank.
And finally, Dupasquier mentioned Brexit as another major reason. “It is obvious that Brexit has huge implications for the higher education system in the UK,” he told Times Higher Education. “As well as the draw of learning the language, the UK was [in the past] an open and welcoming place to go [for students]. Whether this is still the case has been put into doubt by Brexit.”
Considering the realities, employers are certainly beginning to look for top talent in higher education institutions outside the UK. It might be time for you too to reanalyze your plans of studying in the UK.
Getting into a university is not just about ensuring access to quality higher education, but also choosing an institute that employers relate with producing candidates that add immense value to the organisations they join. Now a global study conducted by a leading HR consultancy Emerging gives prospective students insight into the universities most leading employers around the world think produce the best employable talent.
University life is not just an educational experience, but a means of preparing yourself for the future and the challenges of the job market.
Continuing its tradition of lending a helping hand to Afghan brethren, higher education authorities in Pakistan have announced the award of educational scholarships for 3,000 Afghan students. The scholarships will allow Afghan students to receive fully-funded higher education in top universities across Pakistan.
A ceremony to mark the award was held on Thursday in Lahore with Punjab Governor Muhammad Rafiq Rajwana in the chair. Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed and Afghan Ambassador Omer Zakhilwal were also present.
The first batch of 3,000 students enrolled under the programme have already completed their degrees and returned to Afghanistan.
The scholarship awards have been made available under Allama Muhammad Iqbal Scholarship Programme. The programme was launched in 2009 and awards the scholarship over a five-year period. The first batch of 3,000 students enrolled under the programme have already completed their degrees and returned to Afghanistan. The scholarship has now been extended to include MPhil and PhD programmes as well. The awardees will be able to pursue higher education in various fields, including medicine, engineering, agriculture, management and computer science.
Addressing the ceremony HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahnmed said the commission believed in person-to-person and institution-to-institution relations. He said it was this belief due to which HEC had invited Afghan academicians to come live and work in Pakistan. “HEC will provide support in quality assurance and human resource development of the Afghan education system.” He said it was time to channel energies on constructive things instead of wasting time on destruction
Describing the selection of candidates, Dr Mukhtar said HEC had worked diligently with Afghan Ministry of Education to conduct tests in Afghanistan. “The merit list for MPhil and PhD programmes is also being processed,” he added.
Punjab Governor Rajwana said Pakistan always took pride in hosting Afghan students. “These students will become Pakistan’s ambassadors in Afghanistan once they return to their motherland,” he added.
Afghan Ambassador Omer Zakhilwal congratulated HEC for the scholarships, saying the two countries were “celebrating an important dimension of student exchange. It is the desire and wish of our people to keep good relations with Pakistanis”.
The past few days have seen a confusion building over the fate of admissions in some degree programmes offered by 18 private universities in Punjab. However, Punjab Higher Education Minister Syed Raza Ali Gillani has stepped in to put the controversy to rest.
Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed has said that Pakistani universities are beacons of knowledge and it is wrong to associate them with violence and terror.