Khyber Medical University in Peshawar convened vice chancellors, rectors and senior policymakers to map a concerted strategy for KP higher education, research and institutional development.<\/p>\n
The conference also recognised 216 researchers from the province who were ranked among the world s top 2 percent, underscoring the region s research potential and the importance of sustained support for academic excellence.<\/p>\n
Meena Khan Afridi<\/strong> as chief guest reiterated the provincial government s commitment to strengthening governance and quality in universities, announcing plans to introduce departmental legislation to enable the reform agenda. He said government funding will be linked to performance indicators, vice chancellors will face formal evaluations every two years and a transparent accountability mechanism will be put in place to address underperformance. A provincial higher education task force is expected to seek cabinet approval soon.<\/p>\n The minister highlighted student support measures including an increase in the higher education endowment fund from Rs 2.1 billion to Rs 5.2 billion, free education for first and second year female students and orphans, and the introduction of paid internships for graduates next year to improve employability. He stressed that aligning research with societal needs is central to building a modern, competitive and research driven higher education system in KP.<\/p>\n Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar<\/strong> noted that the HEC budget has hovered around Rs 65 billion for the past decade while student enrolment in higher education has grown from 1.4 million in 2015 to 3.5 million today. He welcomed the strong PhD faculty ratio in KP universities at 53 percent, above the national average, and urged measures to raise academic competitiveness and international representation.<\/p>\n Dr Zia Ul Haq<\/strong> emphasised institutional synergy, modern policymaking and effective leadership as prerequisites for elevating universities to global standards. Dr Sohail H Naqvi<\/strong> in his keynote called for improved research output, stronger institutional stability, greater autonomy, and the integration of artificial intelligence into research evaluation to ensure sustainable development.<\/p>\n Dr Muhammad Israr Khan<\/strong> presented detailed governance reforms and future priorities aimed at transparency and efficiency. Heads of HEC divisions delivered briefings on finance, planning and development, research and innovation, scholarships, quality assurance, monitoring and evaluation and information technology, offering practical steps to support implementation across institutions.<\/p>\n Chairman KP Vice Chancellors Forum Dr Sadiq Khattak<\/strong> and university leaders welcomed the collaborative tone of the meeting and committed to coordinated action to strengthen KP higher education, improve research translation and raise institutional standards across the province.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KP higher education leaders pledge unified reforms at KMU conference, linking funding to performance and honoring 216 top researchers to boost research impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":18362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}