Search for the HEC head Opinion April 15, 2021 The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is the engine for the socio-economic development of Pakistan through human resource development and research. Its responsibilities include, among others, raising enrollment levels, improving quality, offering scholarship programs for faculty development, strengthening and creating a culture of research, developing international linkages, improving regulatory framework, and the financial sustainability of higher education institutions. Pakistan has over 220 universities, 1.5 million students and 40,000 faculty, approximately 25 percent of them holding a PhD degree. Each university also has a large number of supporting staff (These universities are in addition to the thousands of colleges that are regulated and controlled by the provincial governments which also need skilled faculty and teachers). In other words, each university, established through its own act of governance, has a very complex multi-tiered ecosystem. To meet global standards, the HEC’s responsibilities include, among others, developing faculty, curriculum, and setting academic and research standards for over hundreds of academic programmes at three different levels of qualifications: Bachelors, Masters and PhD.