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Thursday, March 28, 2024

‘University of the Year’ – Punjab govt. launches annual contest to ‘improve education quality’

LAHORE: In a bid to improve education quality in the public sector in the most populous province, the Higher Education Department (HED) and Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) have announced the first of its kind of annual contest titled ‘University of the Year’.

The provincial higher education authorities have announced novel criteria for assessing the academic and administrative excellence of state-owned varsities.

Media reports about the initiative suggest that 30 universities will be assessed by the field experts on the annual performance and the top-performing institution will be titled ‘University of the Year’.

The experts will assess all universities on basis of securing the highest marks in the scoring grid while the categories have been classified into two. Universities established before 2010 will be placed in Category I while Category II includes higher education institutions established after 2010.

Reports further stated that innovations, new start-ups, and product development have been given a major share in the score pie while faculty development, internationalisation, and fund generation have also been prioritized under the recently introduced criteria.

Furthermore, at least 10 different parameters have been set to grade the performance. The engagement of these public institutions will also promote entrepreneurship among the students besides improvement in the quality of education. It also aimed to amplify the employability skills of new graduates.

PTI leader and Provincial Minister of Punjab for higher education Raja Yassir Humayun, while speaking about the annual contest, said the move of provincial authorities aimed to encourage, motivate and guide the public universities to attain educational excellence besides providing quality education. The award will facilitate these institutions to eye global representation.

The incumbent government, which aimed to improve the youth’s access to education, introduced practical steps for the establishment of at least one state-of-the-art varsity in every district.

From the start of the PTI-led regime, authorities made great strides in the education sector and the university’s QS ranking had improved manifolds.

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Comparing the state-owned higher education institutions, Raja mentioned that ‘The Punjab University jumped 54 points in the year 2020 as compared to the year 2018. Other 11 universities from Punjab surfaced showed improvement and previously only six universities of the province appeared in QS rankings in 2018, he added.

He also reiterated about spending more at the provincial level, an increase in funding for higher education is on the cards in the upcoming budget however the PTI leader stressed that the fee structures of public universities needed to be rationalized to meet the operational cost.

On the other hand, PHEC Chairman Prof Dr. Fazal Ahmad Khalid also hailed the initiative. Promoting healthy competition among HEIs and rewarding the best performing universities is the road to enhance the visibility of provincial universities on global ranking radars, he mentioned while speaking at the ceremony.

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