Pakistan has an ambitious plan for addressing the key challenges of Access, Quality and Relevance for the higher education sector. Under this plan access to higher education is to be doubled, quality to be made compatible to international standards and the education programs as well as research areas will address the needs of the country. Realizing these goals will require enhanced support of the Government of Pakistan, however, that will not be enough. The private sector will have to shoulder increased responsibility for educating the youth while the public sector will necessarily have to diversify its sources of funding. Unless Universities and R&D organizations come up with alternate and innovative forms of resource mobilization, the aim to achieve international standards in higher education and research output may remain difficult to accomplish.

In view of the growing needs and expectations of the institutions of higher learning, the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan in collaboration with the World Bank organized an International Conference viz. ‘Resource Generation and Diversification in Higher Education; from Vision to Reality’ from May 12 to 14, 2008 at the Marriot Hotel, Islamabad, Pakistan. The Conference aimed to sensitize the leadership of the Universities and Degree Awarding Institutes in Pakistan to be able to generate resources for themselves, reduce over dependency on public exchequer, open up access through equitable student aid scheme and compete globally through investments in R&D, commercialization, alumni support, improved governance; better asset management, income and fund raising, etc. The role of private initiatives and the potential of public-private partnerships will also be discussed.

Presentations, panel review and discussions, case studies and hands on experience will constitute the format of the conference.

Agenda

Guests and Participants
Presentations