Work on establishing 15 new varsities has started: Sarwar

LAHORE: Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar has said work has been started on establishing 15 new universities in the province as the provincial government is pursuing a policy of setting up universities in every district.

He said this during a meeting with Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Chairman Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid who called on him at Governor’s House and presented him PHEC’s annual report.

The governor was informed that the PHEC had launched a "Rehnumai Markaz portal" to provide timely information to the students and solve their problems. He also briefed the governor about various other projects of the Punjab Higher Education Commission.

Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar appreciated the initiatives and performance of the provincial HEC. He said that the government was appointing vice-chancellors (VCs) in universities on 100 per cent merit. The Punjab governor said that the government was clearing the universities from political interference and nowhere injustice with the students would be tolerated. He added the global rating of Pakistan's universities was also improving significantly. But, he said, more needs to be done. Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid said that 1,565 faculty members of universities and 3,544 teachers of colleges were given online training during the COVID-19 outbreak during one year.