Venue: Conference Hall, CDPR

Date: 3rd Oct 2017, Tuesday

Time: 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Consortium for Development Policy Research (CDPR) hosted its fifteenth Lahore Policy Exchange talk on “Higher Education Reform in Pakistan.” While some universities in Pakistan have developed high standards that produce internationally competitive graduates, the majority suffer from poor quality. One of the biggest consequences of this is an underprepared workforce in sectors that required an advanced education. But more broadly, Pakistan’s complicated problems need people who can think about them with rigor, and higher education institutions are ideal for cultivating that rigor. This makes higher education reform a priority for the country’s overall development. To diagnose the problems within higher education and explore pathways to reform, this event featured two speakers: Pervez Hoodbhoy (nuclear physicist, activist, and Professor at Forman Christian College) and Hassan Amir Shah (Vice Chancellor of Government College University). Ijaz Nabi, Chairman of the Board of Governors at Consortium for Development Policy Research and Pakistan Country Director at the International Growth Centre, moderated the discussion. Policy exchange dialogue took place at the end, when the question and answer session took place amongst the audience and the presenters.