HEC set to establish NAHE Regional Centre in Punjab

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has finalized the groundwork for establishing a regional centre of national Academy of Higher Education (nAHE) in Punjab.

The HEC, under its Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP) project, aims to strengthen its nAHE –an academic wing of HEC launched in 2019 to improve the quality of teaching, research, and governance in higher education institutions (HEIs) across Pakistan.

Establishment of four nAHE re- gional centres was envisioned during the life of HEDP project.

To address the immediate need of quality training facilities for academia in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, two chapters were notified in these two provinces, last year.

Moving forward, two more are to be established in Punjab and Sindh.

In this regard, a two-day consultative workshop was held with the regional stakeholders of Punjab, for establishing the nAHE regional centre in Lahore.

The workshop was chaired by Programme Coordinator, HEDP, Dr Mahmoodul Hassan Butt, while more than 40 stakeholders, including vice chancellors and deans were present.

The participants provided their valuable inputs on the envisioned role of the nAHE regional centre and how it would build the capacities of faculty and administration in performing their roles more efficiently. The participants suggested that the centre should also be replicated in other regions of the province to meet their needs.

The implementation of the revised Undergraduate Education Policy (UEP) was also discussed at length, and HEIs extended their support to HEC for its