News
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Promotion of higher education priority: Zardari
* President Zardari assures that land acquiring issues faced by FAST National University shall receive quick settlement
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday accorded precedence to promotion of higher education on behalf of his government. He acknowledges that education is pivotal to the progress and prosperity of the country.
He emphasised that his government shall patronise a liberal policy
towards the private education institutes that meet the Higher Education Commission's (HEC) criteria.
The board meeting of FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences was held at the Presidency.
"No nation can progress without making education its topmost priority," said Zardari. Human resource development was also accorded importance in the speech.
Zardari was disappointed that only 91 PhD students at the FAST University are being funded by the HEC. He assured the nation that every effort shall be made to expand higher education facilities so as to raise a pool of highly-qualified professionals for trade and industry in Pakistan.
The president commended services of FAST National University for providing financial assistance worth Rs 50 million to about 1,000 deserving students, to continue higher education.
Zardari said that the secret to the success of the developed nations lie in their attainment of higher education standards and productive human resource development.
Dr Amir Muhammad, rector of FAST National University, gave a detailed briefing about the functions, performance, research and faculty of the university along with the 11 advanced disciplines being taught at the university.
The rector also highlighted some problems that included the transfer of six acres of purchased land by the Sindh government to the university for its Karachi campus, along with allotment of 30 acres of land in Sector H-11, Islamabad, to FAST National University.
The institute, established in 2000, already has campuses located in Islamabad,
Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar and is offering quality education in different disciplines like electrical engineering, business administration, mathematics and accounting and finance.
Presently, 500 students are being sponsored by the government (under National ICT scholarship programme) for study at this university. Twenty-five Fulbright scholarships have been awarded to FAST university graduates.
Zardari assured the faculty of FAST University that the problems would be forwarded to the federal and Sindh governments for early reviewing.
The meeting was attended by most of the faculty along with government officials like former senator Farhatullah Babar. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk