Chairman Sindh Higher Education Commission Professor Dr S. M. Tariq Rafi inaugurated Asma Basher Digital Research Lab at the department of public administration of the University of Karachi on Monday.
The digital research lab has been established with the collaboration of a Chase Up departmental store to provide dedicated facilities to the students enrolled in MPhil, MS, and PhD programmes in the KU DPA. Chairman SHEC Professor Dr Tariq Rafi while addressing the labs inaugural ceremony informed the audience that the provincial HEC was providing full support so that the international ranking of our universities could be improved globally. He shared that the provincial government had increased the allocated budget of the SHEC to Rs24 billion per annum to facilitate varsities of Sindh.
He believed the governments should not interfere in the matters of the universities and should give more autonomous status and power to the higher education institutes of the province. Dr Tariq Rafi advised that universities should adopt the self-accountability approach and work hard to improve their international ranking. He further said to improve the ranking of universities, we have to pay special attention to the teaching and research quality and hoped that it would help in improving the global ranking of our universities.
He mentioned that SHEC has drafted a formula, after considering numerous elements and requirements and keeping various factors in mind, to distribute funds and grants to universities in Sindh. Professor Dr Tariq Rafi observed that a positive change can be brought in society only through positive thinking and its promotion. He mentioned that today getting a job has become difficult, and added that skilled and talented people achieve their goals as they were more dedicated as compared to others. He advised that youngsters should not be disappointed, but should have the courage to do something and achieve something.
He called the cooperation of universities and industries as the need of the hour and valuable for society. Meanwhile, the KU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi said that in order to compete with the world, we have to provide all the basic facilities to our youth, so that they could do well like others. He mentioned that young scholars would get everything in this dedicated digital lab and it has been designed according to the need of the researcher.
