ISLAMABAD, FEB 16 (DNA) – The Higher Education Commission (HEC) governing body has taken some necessary initiatives to strengthen commissions role and for the promotion of higher education in the country.

Talking to state-run media, an official of the HEC on Tuesday said that the HEC has gave approval for complete refund of fee to students under Prime Minister’s Fee Reimbursement Scheme as previously, only tuition fee was being refunded.

He said the new body was taking some important measures for upholding all quality parameters set by the Commission regarding different university affairs.

He said that commission has approved a selection board for appointment and promotion of HEC officers purely on merit basis adding that recently promotions in different schemes Phase-II of Indigenous PhD Fellowships, PhD Scheme under Aghaz-e-Huqooq-e-Balochistan and Prime Minister’s Laptop Scheme were also held on merit basis.

The commission, he said has proposed formation of technical committees to review its various policies. The commission has also reviewed initiatives regarding Pakistan Programme for Collaborative Research, Access to Scientific Instrumentation, Award of Travel Grants to Universities Faculty and Researchers, Grants for Organizing Seminars, Entrepreneurship, patent filing, Offices of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORICs), National Research Programme for Universities (NRPU),Business Incubation Centres.

The body also gave conceptual approval of Pakistan Change Maker Award, which is an annual idea/challenge created by HEC and its national and international partners aims to solicit and fund innovative ideas that will positively impact socio-economic development of the country, he added.

The members were called for a stringent, transparent process for the selection of Vice Chancellors all over the country through VCs Search Committee. DNA