HEC is an independent and autonomous institution which was established in 2002 through an amendment in the constitution. It is responsible for making higher education policy and accrediting academic degrees. It can develop new institutions as well as upgrade the old ones. It plays a leading role in building knowledge based economy in Pakistan. HEC is empowered to grant scholarships for higher education and research both at home and abroad. It is also authorized to upgrade colleges and universities via assessing the level of research and development and other academic activities in the institutions. It is the successor organization of University Grants Commission (UGC).
Higher Education Commission (HEC) is continued to improve access to quality higher education as a key element of its strategy to bring higher education revolution in the country. HEC is focused on creating the knowledge capital and technology required to enable Pakistan to join the ranks of the industrially advanced countries. With the continuous support of Government of Pakistan, HEC has provided access to quality education to masses, upgraded teaching and research labs, provided merit and need based home-grown and foreign scholarships to the talented youth and free access to scientific literature through digital library.
Vision 2025
The government has formulated a long-term roadmap as the Vision 2025 for a developed and prosperous Pakistan addressing key sector of the country. The Vision 2025 stands on 7 Pillars. Pillar-I emphasized developing human and social capital. It seeks to bring human resource development to the top of national agenda by substantial expansion in levels of education as well as improvements in the quality of education. A larger share of the GDP, at least four per cent to education, would have to be allocated. Key goals under this pillar are:
• Universal primary education with 100 per cent net primary enrolment.
• Increase higher education coverage from seven per cent to 12 per cent.
• Increase number of PhDs from 7,000 to 15,000.
To realize the Vision, the 11th Five Year Plan presents a comprehensive approach for addressing human and social development gaps with an emphasis on developing human and social capital to take full advantage of Pakistan’s youth bulge. Pakistan has been projected to become the 5th populous country by 2030, with a population ranging between 230 and 260 million people. Large portion will be the youth. This dividend can be gained through higher productivity and a faster economic growth by providing quality education throughout the population.
The Higher Education Commission has taken numerous measures to address the above mentioned human resources needs by providing access to higher education to masses, providing opportunities to the youth to seek higher studies in the top world class university, provision of research and academic conducive environment to student and faculty.
Performance
Since the establishment of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), several headways have been made to improve the quality of education. However because of previous neglect for extended period of time on university education, Pakistan is still not in a very good position. To catch up with the high ranking countries in quality of university education, still much has been desired to make. The HEC has taken up the target as envisaged in Vision 2025 to enhance the enrolment in higher education institutions 12 per cent of the youth aged between 17-23 years.
Global visibility
The HEC tried to develop sustainable, dynamic and internationally competitive higher education sector in Pakistan that makes a major contribution to economic prosperity, national wellbeing and the expansion and dissemination of knowledge. Due to collective and concerted effort of HEC in coordination with the major stakeholders, the output in Higher Education Institutions of the country have shown tremendous improvements and Pakistan has been acknowledged as rising star by the international higher education community in a number of disciplines. Today many Pakistani universities are seen on the globe.
Human resource development
The youth is the real driving force towards a prosperous Pakistan; therefore, government has launched numerous initiatives to get the youth bulge dividend by developing human resources. Under the HEC, activities mainly focus on providing opportunities to access top universities of Pakistan and the world through various scholarships programs.