Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Rana Tanveer Hussain on Tuesday inaugurated the PhD Country Directory Online System at the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan Secretariat Islamabad.
The HEC’s conventional PhD Country Directory (PCD) setup has been automated through the launch of the online system that can be accessible through (https://eservices.hec.gov.pk/#/pcd) to increase efficiency in the PCD registration procedure of PhD scholars in Pakistan.
Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, Executive Director HEC Dr. Shaista Sohail, Vice Chancellors of several universities, and a significant number of Ph.D. scholars attended a ceremony in this regard at the HEC Secretariat.
The PCD Online System, developed by the HEC Higher Education Data Repository with the assistance of Information Technology (IT) and other Divisions, will allow the inclusion of Pakistani PhDs in HEC data within a few days through university focal persons, without the submission of documents or applications in hard form.
Previously, the PCD processes covering five phases took a PhD scholar several months to become a member of Pakistan’s registered PhD community.
In his remarks at the occasion, Rana Tanveer Hussain praised the inauguration of the PCD Online System and expressed hope that the breakthrough will help Ph.D. students in a hassle-free manner. He emphasized the need of using technology in institutional operations to make processes more accessible to the public. He underscored the importance of human capital investment and the role of HEC in creating human resources for the country.
According to the Minister, the development of higher education and marketable, need-based research is the key to a nation’s advancement and prosperity. He recommended institutions create distinct on-campus environments to promote skill-based education.
He advised universities to improve their financial discipline, interact with industry, foster entrepreneurship, and turn their Offices of Research, Innovation, and Commercialisation (ORICs) into revenue-generating companies.
Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairman of HEC, stated that HEC will soon automate all of its activities and processes to better serve students, teachers, and the general public, and that the HEC degree verification system will be synched with the NADRA database to enable attestation.
He emphasised that the goal of this notion is to increase efficiency, quality, and people’s lives.
He asked the Vice Chancellors to assist HEC in expediting service delivery to the academic community and students. He stated that HEC is devoted to providing the greatest possible services to the nation.
Dr. Shaista Sohail stated in her introductory remarks that the launch of the PCD Online System within three months will hasten the registration of PhDs since there are now 29,300 PhDs in the PCD data.
Earlier, Mr. Ghulam Nabi, Director General of HEDR, presented a detailed presentation comparing the conventional PCD released in 2009 with the flagship PCD Online System.
He informed the audience that HEC trained over 300 focal persons from universities on the new PCD System, received comments from universities for inclusion, and trained over 300 focal persons from universities on the new PCD System.
He stated that HEC HEDR will announce the launch of an Online Data Collection System, Online Ranking System, Data warehousing and Analytics, and Statistical Booklet in the coming months as it moves towards a paperless environment.
