HEC launches mentoring programme for universities to strengthen their professional capacity, leadership role

2026-03-17 - 22:41

Building upon the success of its mentoring efforts for academia, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan has launched Mentoring Programme for Universities (MPU) to train leadership and faculty of higher education institutions across the country. Initiated through the National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE), the programme is an expanded version of HEC’s Women Empowerment and Mentoring Programme launched back in November 2024 for 18 women universities. The present Mentoring Programme for Universities is a nationwide initiative aimed at strengthening leadership capacity and professional development within the higher education institutions (HEIs). It is a gender-inclusive program designed to support faculty members and academic leaders from both public and private sector universities. The programme seeks to foster a culture of mentorship, collaboration, and knowledge sharing across the higher education landscape of Pakistan. Chairman HEC Prof Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar who attended the launch ceremony, held at HEC Secretariat on Tuesday termed mentoring of academic leadership and faculty a crucial part of institutional development. Members of the HEC’s senior management committee, vice chancellors of all the universities also joined the event virtually. In his remarks, the Chairman HEC highlighting the significance of readiness for mentorship, he underlined that the country’s academia has no dearth of learned figures with high capability to deliver in this specific area. The program, he asserted, will help exploit the expertise of such senior academicians. Dr. Niaz appreciated NAHE for the success of Women Empowerment and Mentoring Program and expanding the scope of this initiative to all the universities. “This was very much needed, and it was high time to further extend the program,” he asserted. Speaking on this occasion, Managing Director NAHE Dr. Noor Amna Malik shed light on the program’s background. She underlined the achievements of Women Empowerment and Mentoring Program. “The initiative garnered huge success and repute, paving the way for its expansion to all the universities across the country,” she affirmed. She maintained that as many as 890 mentors and mentees were produced through the Women Empowerment and Mentoring Program. “The initiative proved to be a support system within our own ecosystem, as it has been institutionalised and internalised where people assist and uplift one another,” she emphasised. Dr. Malik underscored that the Mentoring Program for Universities will help remove the interpersonal and psychological barriers facing the academic leadership and faculty.