LAST month, the federal government reversed its decision to slash the HEC’s budget but it seems to have been a case of ‘too little, too late’. Federally administered universities can hope to cover the main component of their expenditure, which is salaries for teaching and non-teaching staff, but the urgency to improve standards will go unaddressed yet again.

Many of our higher education institutions churn out large numbers of graduates each year, but there are no systems in place to absorb them into the economic infrastructure, neither are there programmes to upskill the graduates for job requirements. Most find themselves navigating an extremely competitive market where they cannot match up to the skills needed to be hired.

With 58 per cent of our population under the age of 24, our higher education system has to step up to deliver the outcomes necessary for economic growth. Over two million Pakistanis are currently in higher education and only 60,000 get the opportunity to study in institutes abroad. Our 3,000 degree colleges have the massive responsibility to produce job-ready graduates, which requires investment in infrastructure, technology, industry ties and skills that can serve key economic sectors.

Any hope for building the........

© Dawn