A two member’s delegation of World Bank visited Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR)  on May 15, 2014.

The delegation comprising by Mr. Halil Dunder,  Lead Education Specialist, Senior Education Specialist and Ms. Ayesha Khan,  Operations Analyst met with PMAS-AAUR Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Rai Niaz Ahmad  and other senior faculty members.

The meeting was held with a view to reform and expand the participation of higher education sector in order to improve its contribution to the economic growth and prosperity of the country. They exchanged the views on various educational aspects especially on Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC), Office of Research, Innovation & Commercialization (ORIC) , and Student Resource Center of University.

The vice-chancellor briefed the delegation about the ongoing academic, research and extra-curricular activities at the university and the contributions made by the faculty, staff and the students’ communities. Appreciating the role of Higher Education Commission (HEC), Dr Niaz Ahmad Khan said that HEC funding had helped increase varsity faculty participation in international conferences and access to research journals, leading to significant improvement in research output.

The world bank team appreciated the comprehensive work being carried on at PMAS-AAUR and expressed a hope for joining hand in future to work for the issues related to education, particularly in financial aid and to strengthen the QEC and ORIC.

It may be recalled that World Bank delegation is visiting different universities to review and make it more strengthen theTertiary Education Support Program (TESP) of HEC being supported by the World Bank under the umbrella of Medium Term Development Framework-Higher Education-II (MTDF-HE II).