'Graduate colleges number to go up to 100 by year end'.

LAHORE -- Punjab Minister for Higher Education Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfraz says concrete steps were being taken to improve quality of education and international ranking of the universities of the province.

'There are 48 graduate colleges in the province and the number will reach 100 by the end of this academic year,' the minister said while addressing the concluding session of two-day national conference on 'Recent Advances and Challenges in Basic and Social Sciences in Contemporary Research' at the Govt Islamia for Women College Cooper Road on Thursday.

Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Chairman Dr Fazal Khalid and Director Colleges Lahore Sakhawat Ali were also present.

The college principal, Dr Fauzia Naz, spoke about the salient features of the conference.

The minister said no attention was paid in the past to betterment of the colleges to improve the quality of education.

'We are implementing a 10-year educational reforms plan for improving higher education.'

Mr Sarfraz said work was under process on the plan of setting up of eight universities in the province after the legislation while a world-class university would be established at every division level in the province. He added that steps were being taken to improve the global ranking of the local universities and a cell was set up at the PHEC to guide the universities to improve their international ranking. He said VCs of all the public sector universities and chairmen of all educational boards were appointed on merit.

He maintained that in order to provide quality education to the students at an affordable fee, the graduate colleges would be brought on a par with the university standards and the quality of education of colleges in remote areas would also improve.

TOBACCO: Punjab Higher Education Commission...