ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Rana Tanveer Hussain on Friday thanked the US Government and USAID for their continuous support to Pakistan’s higher education system in the form of both infrastructure development and institutional capacity building.

He said this while addressed the closing session of “International Summit on Higher Education and Workforce Development in 21st Century” organized by US AID and Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Friday here at a local hotel.

US Senator of Utah State Mr Keith Grover also attended the event. The Federal Minister said that in the backdrop of USAID’s Higher Education System Strengthening Activity (HESSA) between Government of USA and Pakistan which is worth $19 Million, is yet another initiative that will support our 16 universities in improving their institutional and technical capacities in delivering market-relevant education and research.

Rana Tanveer Hussain said that we should focus on improving institutional governance, curriculum, access and quality, teaching and research practices, industry-academia linkages, and climate change adaptation. He said it is a reality-whether we like it or not-most stakeholders complain that our education system does not equip the students with the knowledge, experience, skills, or values needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world. It is clear to everyone that business as usual is not an option to reverse this trend.

We need to be bold, innovative, and committed to achieve the three-fold objective of improving access, quality, and relevance of our higher education. Also, in moving forward, advancing social justice by mainstreaming marginalized communities into higher education system needs to be prioritized.

The Minister said that the key challenges that are faced by our higher education sector that need to be addressed are low and inequitable access; traditional teaching and research techniques; weak industry and academia linkages; weak management and governance amongst a myriad of others.

“I urge the policy makers and practitioners present here to review and revamp our curricula; invest in building capacities of our teaching and research faculty; bring about a paradigm shift in the moving away from subject-focused, rote-learning to an interdisciplinary approach to research and education”, the Minister said.

He said if we invest in our higher education system in terms of strengthening leadership and policies; enhancing faculty’s teaching and research capacities; strengthening industry-academia linkages; and improving in student support services-this will result in a system that churns out well-rounded graduates with potential to have secured livelihoods.

He said the innovations, experiences and lessons learned from HESSA will be instrumental in scaling up the best practices throughout the sector. At the end Rana Tanveer Hussain extended his gratitude to the HESSA project team for bringing together a highly accomplished group of thought leaders, policy makers, academicians, and students to deliberate over issues that are urgent and critical for improving our graduates’ employability and workforce development in Pakistan.