He addressed the faculty of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad at New Senate Hall as chief guest on Wednesday whereas the UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Zafar Iqbal Randhawa was guest of honor.

Dr Tariq Banuri said that the commission was putting a special focus on the improvement of quality, access to education, and problem solving research. He said it is prerequisite to invest in the improvement of quality, and capacity building of faculty members to attain the goal of the development.

He said that quality should not be compromised at varsities. We have to produce excellent professionals and carry out research relevance of socio-economic needs of masses.

Explaining future plans, he said they would build the National Academy for Higher Education for the training and capacity building of the university newly-inducted teaching faculty, and administrative staff. He said that the faculty at the entrance level in the university would be provided three months training at the academy.

He said that they would put a special focus on creating leadership qualities to produce excellent administrators as well as vice chancellors. He said that equal importance will be given to education and research. He said that we have to engage the students in the disciplines which are demand driven to flourish.

He said that they were developing a mechanism of picking up 15 elite universities out of all universities of the country on their performances. There are 192 universities operating in Pakistan, he said, adding that the mechanism of 15 universes was meant to make them at par with international standards and demands. They will be given autonomy and additional resources.

He showed his concern that only 3 percent out 10,000 applicants passed the CSS Examination, speaking the poor quality conditions of our educational institutes. He stressed upon the need to take special measures for quality improvement in education so that students can perform in their chosen areas.

He was of the view that they are launching the Major Information Technology platform, on the patron of Nadra, to make available degree attestation. He said that they were extensively working to address the problems of the academy and students with new initiatives and friendly policies.

Dr Zafar Iqbal said that academia- industry linkages are need of the hour to fight the challenges of the new era. He said that the target of poverty alleviation can be met with quality education, demand driven research and strong academia-industry linkages. He added that he had dedicated the new building of pro vice chancellor office to the industry to cement the ties. He added that the agriculture was the our backbone, contributing 20 percent to the Gross Domestic Product. Director ORIC Dr Zahir Ahmad Zahir also spoke on the occasion.