Higher education is the key to our national development. The federal government have promised Higher Education Commission (HEC) to allocate 70 billion as a grant for the fiscal year 2020-2021 in response to the demand of 104.78 billion as a recurring grant from HEC but lately, the government only allocated 64.1 billion for higher education in the current budget presented on 13th June.
This is the matter of deep concern for the future of university students and the standard of higher education in Pakistan. Reducing the higher education budget will cause financial burden on students and universities as well. Mostly universities already have reduced their faculty and are following the austerity measures. It will also affect different student support programs and faculty development programsfunded by HEC, which will decrease the standard of higher education in Pakistan.
It is highly recommended to increase the budget allocation of HEC for improving the quality of higher education up to the international level.
Muhammad Saad Khan, Islamabad