Govt considering to cut Higher Education Commission budget

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Will continue to fund existing scholars abroad and current projects

By Farhan Zafar
KARACHI: The country’s financial crisis has forced the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to ask universities to stop all development projects as it hardly has the resources to finance them.

An official HEC document stated that the commission can only manage to fund the 250 development projects that are currently being executed in universities across the country.

The document warns that if the HEC stops releasing funds according to the approved plans, the universities will face many problems by canceling the ongoing construction contracts. This will lead to many legal complications and costs.

It also revealed that the government released only 2.5 billion rupees in the first quarter for the development grant for a demand of 4.5 billion rupees that was stated in the proposed plan for the 284 approved HEC projects. A massive cut of Rs 2.61 billion is expected in HEC’s development grant for the next quarter.

In the Human Resource Development (HRD) project, the HEC has sent 6,500 scholars to pursue higher studies abroad. It is also supporting around 4,000 scholars who are involved in research within Pakistan.

Considering the importance of the agreements the HRD and HEC have with international universities, the commission has to allocate 1.5 billion rupees out of its 2.5-billion-rupee first quarter funds to support the scholars who are currently studying abroad. This has left HEC with little resources to support the ongoing university development projects within the country.

HEC advisor on HRD Dr Mahmood Raza stated, “We are providing monthly stipends to all our scholarship holders studying abroad.”

The HEC is not sure whether it can afford to award future scholarships but it has to keep supporting scholars already studying abroad. “We cannot leave them halfway through, that will be a major set back for the country’s higher education sector,” said Dr Raza

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg12_4