Provincial Minister for Finance Hashim Jawan Bakht has said that the Higher Education Department (HED) must ensure enrollment of more students into colleges which will prove its efficient performance. He said this when he was presiding over a meeting, organized by chief minster’s special monitoring unit (SMU), held in order to analyze the 3-month performance of the HED.A special representation must be given to private universities in the Universities’ Act; the minister said adding that addition of community colleges for provision of two-year degree would provide a positive impact. He argued that the imposition of equal chartered on all universities will provide positive aftermaths in eliminating issues in establishing local campuses. He went on saying that accession of faculty staff and internship programs will also be fruitful and it is the need of time that technical education must be provided in connection with formal education. The minister enforced that the previous government didn’t give attention to more than 8000 vacant posts in colleges, but on the other hand, the current government, despite the lack of funds, is adopting other resources for completion of colleges and to minify the inadequacy of teachers. Separately, Minister for Higher Education Yasir Humayon told the meeting attendees that preparation of the Universities Act has been completed which will be imposed after cabinet approval. The minister for higher education further explained that according to the act, no university will be allowed to open a sub-campus in any other division.
Moreover, the Punjab government will establish a university in each division, he said. Meanwhile, all the colleges will be authorized to grant the degree under the concerned and divisional university, the minister said. The minister explained that the system of giving several departments the level of university has damaged the status of local universities in international rankings. In addition to, Mian Aslam Iqbal, the Minister for Industry, gave suggestion that services of PhD scholars can be availed in order to subsidize the lack of teachers. Mian Aslam Iqbal drew attention of the meeting attendees towards counseling of matriculation-pass students so that they could be able to choose their subjects for their career. Apart from this, advisor to CM Dr Salman Shah, Head Special Monitoring Unit (SMU) Fazeel Asif, members of Planning & Development and concerned secretaries were also present in the meeting.