THE higher education sector is important for the socio-economic development of a country. After World War II, many countries started focusing on higher education and its outcomes, particularly inventions that helped initiate the Industrial Revolution.

In Pakistan, the government established the University Grants Commission (UGC) in 1974 and then the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2002, with a mission to increase access to higher education and facilitate higher education institutions in providing quality education relevant to the needs of the country. HEC has offered local and international scholarships and training with the support of the government. It has also developed various criteria and guidelines for different stakeholders. Over the last 20 years, enrollment has increased by 50%. The quality of graduates can be assessed based on the research produced at universities. There were approximately 500 reputable publications in 2002 and now around 14,000 reputable publications have been produced in recent years.

The entire higher education ecosystem is dependent on funding, which is mainly provided by the government for public sector universities. Although the number of universities has increased over the years, funding for the sector has remained fixed at around 65 billion rupees since 2018. The initiatives taken by the........

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