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Pre-engineering students allowed to switch to medical with one additional subject

November 05, 2019

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It was decided that pre-engineering students who have passed their FSc could switch over to pre-medical if they pass the additional subject of biology. — Online/File
ISLAMABAD: In a major policy decision, the education ministry has decided to allow pre-engineering students to switch to pre-medical by taking biology as an additional subject.

Sources in the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training said the decision was made following complaints lodged by students on the Pakistan Citizen Portal.

They said that after receiving the complaints the ministry took up the matter with the concerned directorates and the National Curriculum Council (NCC).

With approval from the NCC, it was decided that pre-engineering students who have passed their FSc could switch over to pre-medical if they pass the additional subject of biology.

A notification, which was signed on Oct 31 and distributed among the stakeholders on Monday, stated: “National scheme of studies at higher education secondary school certificate (HSSC) level has been designed as a package containing a number of subjects necessary to qualify for HSSC.”

Decision taken following complaints lodged by students on Pakistan Citizen Portal

Currently, students passing the pre-medical group are allowed to appear in additional subject of mathematics to opt for the engineering group but students passing the pre-engineering group are not allowed to appear in additional subject of biology to switch over to the medical group.

“Besides, students are encouraged to appear in A-level biology exam to get pre-medical equivalence certificate from the Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC),” the notification said.

It added: “In order to remove disparity and facilitate the students passing the pre-engineering group, the National Curriculum Council reviewed the existing rules/policy/scheme of study and allowed the students passing pre-engineering group to appear in additional subject of biology to switch over to the pre-medical group.

When contacted, Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) Chairman Dr Ikram Ali Malik confirmed to Dawn that the education ministry had issued the notification.

“So far, I could not go through the notification but we will follow whatever the directive of the education ministry,” he said.

However, Dr Malik said according to the scheme of study, 200 hours of practical work was involved in biology at the FSc level so the board will have to decide how practical work would be covered by the students.

He said across the country no educational board was offering the facility of switching over from pre-engineering to the pre-medical group.

“When we will implement, we will be the first board,” he said.

Another official of the FBISE said covering 200 hours practical work was not an easy task so implementation of the notification would be difficult.

Sources in the education ministry said there were around 30 educational boards and except for the FBISE the others fell under the domain of provincial governments as education was a devolved subject.

Asked about the concerns expressed by some FBISE officials, the official in the education ministry said FBISE is only supposed to conduct exams.

“The board is supposed to conduct exams and it is up to students to prove their ability. Students after passing pre-engineering can easily manage their practical work for the additional subject of biology. They will appear in exams to be conducted by the board and if they prove good they will pass, so there should be no such confusion in this regard. Students should be given a chance to grow,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2019
 
Seven King Edward Medical University programmes get NHSRC ministry nod

November 13, 2019

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KEMU has also approved various projects to further expand the scope of education to the students and facilities for the faculty members in collaboration with the local and international medical institutions/organisations. — Photo courtesy KEMU Facebook page
LAHORE: The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC) has included seven major programmes of the King Edward Medical University in the Schedule III of Gazette and notified the same accordingly.

The programmes include PhD Anatomy, PhD Community Medicine, PhD Biochemistry, MPhil Community Medicine, MPhil Public Health, Masters in Public Health and MD Hematology.

The KEMU has also approved various projects to further expand the scope of education to the students and facilities for the faculty members in collaboration with the local and international medical institutions/organisations.

The decisions were taken in some recent meetings chaired by KEMU Vice Chancellor Prof Khalid Masood Gondal.

The meeting was told that medical education in the KEMU had gone through remarkable changes in order to improve research, examination system, audit process, academic programmes, curricula development, regulations for conduct and discipline, formulation of policies, financial funding and upgrade of the infrastructure.

It reviewed various projects approved for the varsity, including its new campus’ PC11 which would lead to construction of new administrative block similar to the Patiala Block, a 1000-bed state of the art hospital, international undergraduate medical college, college of nursing and allied health sciences with residential and hostel facility, a modern library complex and recreational centre, examination halls, gymnasium, Jammia Masjid (central mosque) and an auditorium with a capacity of 3,000 persons.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Gondal said the KEMU had taken a qualitative leap forward by establishing strong linkages with other universities through general support, research centres and institutes, establishment of new business incubators and technology parks.

He said the purpose of the collaboration with various local and foreign universities and institutions was to ensure the training of our faculty members and young scholars in interdisciplinary research methods and theoretical approaches.

“Last year, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had increased the KEMU budget to meet the growing financial needs of the varsity”, he said.

Mr Gondal said the government and HEC had extended their full support for construction of the girls hostels and new buildings. All these new projects would be completed within the given timelines.

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and some other university degrees, including MD, MPH and MPhil were awaiting visits and accreditation from regulatory authorities.

The VC said he managed visits of the PM&DC team for accreditation of the PhD and Masters programmes of the varsity. Consequently, international research grants for the KEMU had been approved with collaboration of Imperial College London, he added.

The KEMU has also signed MoUs/agreements with academia. The foreign delegations affiliated with international universities of top QS rankings, including Imperial College London, Harvard University and University of Birmingham have been invited by the varsity.

“The KEMU is going to launch new training programmes of medical education, medical editing and the family medicine for medical professionals seeking skills development”, the VC said.

New post graduate programmes for child psychiatrists and podiatrists are also being prepared with international collaborations and foreign faculty.

He said the KEMU again attained a distinction for being first choice of the medical students for admission and hopefully the projects and initiatives taken recently would include it in the leading varsities in the region in the coming years.
 
PM Imran to Inaugurate Pakistan’s First Science & Technology Park Next Week

The National University of Science & Technology (NUST) is all set to unveil Pakistan’s first Science & Technology Park next week.

In a glittering ceremony, Prime Minister Imran Khan will inaugurate the National Science & Technology Park (NSTP) on December 9, an official statement said.

An initiative of NUST and in line with the vision of our Prime Minister, the National Science & Technology Park is here to play its role in strengthening the national economy. It all starts on the 9th of December, 2019.

Hailed as the country’s largest innovation and research ecosystem, NSTP is located in H-12 Sector of the federal capital, Islamabad – in the vicinity of NUST.

The high-tech IT Park houses more than 40 companies, including start-ups, Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and tech giants, and is still accepting applications.

According to the NUST statement, the project will serve as a launchpad for the country’s leading researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs.

It will be the most attractive location in the country to bring your research, development, and innovation endeavors


 
President asks varsities to improve syllabuses as per students’ needs
December 05, 2019
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President Dr Arif Alvi speaks at the conference on ‘Quality Assurance System, Standards and Policies: Issues and Challenges’ on Wednesday. Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood is also present. — INP


ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday emphasised the need for universities to improve their syllabuses and bring it into consonance with social and psychological needs of the students.

“Education must be pleasure and should not keep students under a perpetual stress of achievement,” the president said while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the international conference on ‘Quality Assurance System, Standards and Policies: Issues and Challenges’.

The conference is being organised by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in collaboration with the United States Education Foundation Programme (USEFP).

The conference aims to improve the quality of higher education and advance mutual understanding of international quality assurance standards by bringing together academic experts from around the world.

The president said universities must focus on enhancing the quality of education and research in addition to increasing enrolments and publications.

Education minister says new education policy will be finalised soon

He said as the economy improved, funding situation for higher education would also improve.

He said past years had witnessed a remarkable infrastructural development in the education sector, but the majority of parents want improvement in quality of education for their children.Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said the government intends to enhance funding for higher education for recurring as well as the development budget.

He lamented that Pakistan was declining in the Learning Poverty Index, adding that quality had become a challenge with the expansion of access to education.

Mr Mahmood said 50,000 undergraduate scholarships per year had been announced under the Prime Minister Ehsas Undergraduate Scholarship Programme, which was a big initiative. He also acknowledged the contribution of the US government in promoting higher education in the country.

HEC Chairman Tariq Banuri said the conference themes correspond with the commission’s reform agenda. He added that the goal of the conference was to start a national conversation on quality.

US Ambassador Paul Jones said the United States was proud of its educational linkages with Pakistan. He said the US had recently entered into 23 partnerships with Pakistani institutions, adding that 100 Pakistanis were sent to the US under the US-Pakistan Academic and Cultural Exchange Programme.

The US envoy further said his country had so far awarded 19,000 need-based scholarships to Pakistani students.

National Conference on Education

Speaking at another event, Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said new education policy was being prepared which would be finalised soon.

Speaking at the national conference on education organised by the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences, the education minister said for bringing uniformity in the education sector, which is currently divided into three streams, a national curriculum was being developed which would be taught in all system of educations, including madressahs. He said there was also a need for authentic education data as available data was not much reliable.

Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas emphasised the need to create a consensus on a unified educational framework between the federal and provincial governments.

He also called for robust examination system to improve the educational system, in addition to setting the curriculum in line with international standards.

He said by 2020, the Punjab education department will be fully digitised in making decisions related to education.

To a query of one of the participants, the provincial education minister said Pakistan’s education sector should not be compared with developed countries, rather “our comparison should be made with Somalia and Nigeria”, he said, referring to the state of education in the country. However, he said his party’s government had been making efforts to bring improvement.

Earlier, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, while discussing the poor education indicators and magnitude of the challenge, stressed the need for a well-coordinated response to the challenge.

He stressed on the federal government to act as a coordinator for charting out a course for addressing the education needs.

Chairman Standing Committee on Law and Convener Parliamentary Task Force on SDGs Riaz Fatyana said Pakistan was lagging behind the SDG-4 targets and stressed the need for combined effort to achieve them.

He said efforts of the current government, particularly for education reforms, were praiseworthy and would soon show a mark improvement in the education indicators.

Parliamentary Secretary for Planning Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives Kanwal Shauzab outlined the government efforts for achieving SDG-4 targets.

She said the present government had introduced exceptional reforms in the education sector, which would lead to substantial improvement in the education sector.

A numbers of education experts and public representatives from all provinces spoke and called for generating a national response to end education emergency in the country.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2019
 
Can someone please update me on the present level of mathematical education in Pakistan ? How popular is mathematics among the young students ?
 
Punjab Government started work on the construction of 9 Universities in the Year 2019. Name of the following Universities are as follows:

1. Kohsar University, Murree
2. Thal University, Bhakkar
3. Rawalpindi University
4. North Punjab University, Chakwal
5. Mianwali University
6. Baba Guru Nanak University, NankanaSahab
7. South Punjab University, Layyah
8. Information & Technology University, Rawalpindi
9. Al-Qadir University Sohawa
 
Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurates *Huawei ICT Lab* at NAMAL Institute Mianwali

Prime Minister was briefed about state of the art ICT facility at NAMAL Institute #Mianwali


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Engineering university to be set up in Swat

January 13, 2020

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The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to establish an engineering and technology university in Swat with the initial estimated cost of Rs4 billion that would produce market-oriented graduates.

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to establish an engineering and technology university in Swat with the initial estimated cost of Rs4 billion that would produce market-oriented graduates.

The planned Swat University of Engineering and Technology (SUET) would be run on triple helix model to connect government, industry and academic with each other.

“Unlike other universities in the province that solely depend on the government funds, the SUET will have its own sustainability plan,” said Hamid Naveed, chief planning officer of higher education department.

Mr Naveed has been appointed as focal person for establishment of SUET at fast track by chief minister. Administratively, he said, the new university would be different from the rest of the universities as a decentralised system would be implemented to address issues at low level.

The new university would be a joint venture of the private sector and academia, said Dr Najeebullah, who is involved in planning for the SUET.

SUET will be run on triple helix model to connect govt, industry and academia

Dr Najeebullah has done PhD from University of Cambridge, UK in material sciences. He is founding director of US-Pakistan Centre for Advance Studies.

He said that government, industry and academia would work jointly under the banner of SUET. Initially, he said, six disciplines would be established including energy engineering, civil engineering, institute of materials, mining and metallurgy, biomedical engineering, computer system engineering and institute of manufacturing in the university.

Dr Najeeb said that the institute of manufacturing was sort of a research centre where the students would conduct research on problems being faced by local industries and their solution.

He said that SUET would be linked with the best engineering universities of the developed countries like the US and UK for exchange of knowledge. “We will also make efforts to introduce dual/joint degree programmes with such universities,” he added.

Dr Najeeb said that linkage with the best universities of the world would constantly improve quality of SUET that could lead to the students exchange programmes as well.

To save SUET graduates from joblessness, he said, their entrepreneurial skills would be developed to make them job providers instead of job speakers by establishing their own businesses.

Asked about SUET’s own plan of financial sustainability, Dr Najeeb said that the academia and students would conduct consultancies for various government departments and corporate sectors.

For instance, he said, Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation was working on the many projects, so SUET would conduct consultancies for it and other government owned companies.

According to feasibility study of SUET, it would produce international level qualified graduates in different disciplines and would help in making public policy formulations and establishment of new enterprises.

It would also be a hub of skills development and executive courses and would conduct applied research to solve the indigenous issues.

Regarding the justification of establishment of SUET, the official documents reveal that each year almost 15,000 candidates apply for different disciplines of University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar. However, UET as per the approved number of seats by statutory bodies can only accommodate 1,790 students. This humongous number of applicants clearly demonstrates the need of engineering education in KP.

The documents say that for sustainability plan of SUET, there would be three major sections of the university including academic wing, think tank and enterprises.

The academic wing will look after all the academic activities of the university. The think tank will conduct case studies and based on empirical finding will help government and private sectors in public policy formulations.

The enterprise wing will be responsible for fund raising and exploring different business opportunities.
 
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