The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has launched a nationwide Mentoring Program to train leadership and faculty across public and private universities, expanding an earlier NAHE-led initiative that began with women-focused cohorts.
The program, implemented through the National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE), builds on the Women Empowerment and Mentoring Program introduced in November 2024 for 18 women universities. That earlier effort produced 890 mentors and mentees and served as a model for scaling mentorship across Pakistan’s higher education sector.
Engr. Prof. Dr. Niaz Ahmad Akhtar (S.I), Chairman HEC, attended the launch at the HEC Secretariat and highlighted mentoring as a vital element of institutional development. He noted that Pakistan’s academia already includes senior scholars with the expertise to mentor the next generation and that the new Mentoring Program will channel that experience to strengthen institutional capacity.
Dr. Noor Amna Malik, Managing Director NAHE, described how the women mentoring initiative has been institutionalised as a support system within universities and how its success paved the way for a gender-inclusive expansion. She emphasised that the Mentoring Program will offer guidance to address interpersonal and psychological barriers, develop leadership capabilities, and help faculty contribute to both personal growth and institutional transformation.
Dr. Uzma Quraishi, Vice Chancellor of Lahore College for Women University, reflected on LCWU’s participation in the original program, noting that 240 mentors from three cohorts are now cascading learning across the campus. She stressed that universities can add need-based modules to the Mentoring Program to tackle campus-specific challenges and that this flexibility enhances the initiative’s potential to transform the academic ecosystem.
The Mentoring Program aims to foster a culture of mentorship, collaboration and knowledge sharing across higher education institutions, support emerging academic leaders, and provide practical, need-driven modules to strengthen leadership and faculty performance nationwide.
