President, IIUI has appreciated the initiative and work carried out by Ms. Nuzhat Zareen, Director, UAFA and Prof. Dr. Ahmed Shuja Syed, Vice President (Research & Enterprise) for the award of Rs. 30 million for the implementation of “Framework for Financial Autonomy through Revenue Enhancement and Fund Generation”. This is in line with the HEC’s World Bank funded project “Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP)” to support the HEC Vision 2025. The framework contains, broadly, the roadmap for revenue enhancement, review of the existing legal and statutory structure of universities as contained in their Acts/Ordinance, Statutes, and Financial Rules with the objective to harmonize them with the framework; as well as avenues and strategy to meet the objective of revenue enhancement.
Earlier, Dr. Hathal Hamood Alutaibi, President International Islamic University, while spearheading the initiative also signed an MOU with the Higher Education Commission. The main features of the implementation phase are focused on the establishment of a University Development Office, for revenue enhancement through non-traditional sources as well as to examine, analyze, and recommend the (investment) proposals or projects for revenue generation. This office will help kick start and keep the ball rolling.
Prof. Dr. Ahmed Shuja Syed, Vice President (Research & Enterprise) termed this grant as an aligned initiative to the University’s Strategic Plan (2022-26), where Financial Sustainability and Improvement in Governance and Internal Control Mechanism are among the six target priority areas. He further added that this initiative will greatly help attain several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the Strategic Plan contributing towards the growth and success of the institution.