Higher Education Commission

Internship Report
(2011)

Internship Report
Master of Business Administration Program
Name: Sehar Andleeb
Reg. No.: 27/MBA/PIDE/2010

Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad

Organization Name: HEC

Main Telephone Number(s): 051-90400000
Postal Address: H-9, Islamabad

Supervisor Name: Afeefa Irshad

Telephone Number: o51-90401919

Start Date for Internship: 11/07/2011

End Date for Internship: 20/08/2011

Report Date: 25/06/2012

Higher Education Commission

Evaluation
Sehar Andleeb
Completed internship at
Higher Education Commission

Internship report submitted for the Final Evaluation in

Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of

Masters in Business Administration

It is certified that, the Internship report and the work contained in it conforms to all
the standards set by the Institute for the evaluation of any such work.

Signature

_____________________________________________
Afeefa Irshad
Assistant Director Finance, HEC

Higher Education Commission

Pakistan Institute of Development

Economics, Islamabad

Higher Education Commission

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all I would like to take this opportunity to pay my humble
gratitude to Almighty ALLAH, who enabled and give me courage
and enthusiasm to complete this report. For the completion of my
internship, I owe a lot too many people. Without the support of
these helping hands, I could never have successfully completed the
internship as well as the report. It was continuous prayers and
support of my parents, family and friends that I am at this stage,
without their prayers and support I would not consider myself to
reach at that stage. And most importantly I would like to pay
tribute to all my teachers from my college days and specially the
Professors in masters degree; and all other teachers and
personnel attach to this program in PIDE to provide us best of
facilities and confidence in ourselves that gave me Courage to
complete this report. I owe to a great deal, all my colleagues who
extended to me whatever help I needed. And to the Finance
department of Higher Education Commission for giving me such
an opportunity to complete my internship with highly skilled people
and in professional environment, that helped me in the degree, in
this internship report and INSHALLAH in my future career.

Higher Education Commission

Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT............................................................................
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..........................................................................
1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................
1.1 HEC BACKGROUND (History)..........................................................
1.2 OBJECTIVES.....................................................................................
1.3 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF HEC..........................................
1.4 SERVICES OFFERED BY HEC............................................................
1 Access to Higher Education............................................................
2. Quality Education..........................................................................
3. Relevance with economy...............................................................
4. Management assistance...............................................................
5. Facilities for Students & Faculty/Staf............................................
2. LEARNING AND EXPERIENCE..........................................................
2.1 Internship Duration & Rationale for Selection.................................
2.2 Details of Task Performed...............................................................
2.3 Main task......................................................................................
3. SWOT ANALYSIS.............................................................................
3.1

SWOT Analysis of HEC................................................................

3.1.1 Strengths................................................................................
3.1.2 Weakness................................................................................
3.1.3 OPPORTUNITIES......................................................................
3.1.4 Threats....................................................................................
ii

Higher Education Commission

3.2 RECOMMENDATIONS.....................................................................
4. CONCLUSION...................................................................................

REFERENCE.............................................................................................
APPENDIX...............................................................................................

iii

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
I have worked as internee in Higher Education Commission for eight weeks i.e. from 11th
July to 20th August, 2011. I opted to have internship in HEC and specifically in Finance
Department as the department is primarily involved with financial issues of the
organization and as my field of interest is also finance. HEC is dealing with monetary
issues of the organization and of the HEIs (Higher Education Institutes) all the time and to
me it was a great experience to work in HEC.
The Higher Education Commission has been set up by The Government of Pakistan to
facilitate the development of indigenous universities to be world class centers of
education, research and development. Through facilitating this process, the HEC intends
to play its part in spearheading the building of a knowledge-based economy in Pakistan.
HEC provides the services to strengthen the HEIs, access of Higher Education, Quality of
Education, Research Enhancement, Faculty & staff development, relevance with the
economy. HEC also provide funds to public as well as private sector institutions for the
infrastructure

development,

faculty

development,

research

enhancement,

PERN

Connectivity, Digital Library, e-books & e-journals.

During the internship period I worked on different projects. The basics tasks that I
performed were. Maintaining record and data related to recurring budgets of the
universities, data entry of quarter wise utilization reports of recurring budget, preparing
budget execution reports. During my tenure of internship I performed functions that are
related to middle management work at finance department.

1. INTRODUCTION
The Higher Education Commission has been set up by The
Government of Pakistan to facilitate the development of indigenous
universities to be world class centers of education, research and
development. Through facilitating this process, the HEC intends to
play its part in spearheading the building of a knowledge-based
economy in Pakistan.
HEC provides the services to strengthen the HEIs (Higher
Education Institutes), access of Higher Education, Quality of
Education, Research Enhancement, Faculty & staff development,
relevance with the economy.
HEC also provide funds to public as well as private sector
institutions

for

the

infrastructure

development,

faculty

development, research enhancement, PERN Connectivity, Digital

Library, e-books & e-journals.
HEC also provide the IT & Networking facilities, Campus
management solution/ERP, Video conferencing facility, etc. HEC
also provides funds for the research enhancement through Research
grant, travel grant, university industry linkages, technology parks,
subject specific, Research and centralized resource labs. HEC also
helps the HEIs for introduction of new programs like market based
technologies, new emerging technologies, etc.

1.1 HEC BACKGROUND (History)

When Pakistan was founded in 1947, the country inherited two
institutes of higher education; one of which is the University of the
Punjab. The Pakistan Education Conference was held in 1947 to set
a vision for the education system of the infant country but little
came of that effort. Later, in 1952, a higher education body, the
Inter-university Board, was established to develop liaison among
the universities of the country. However, it was inherently
ineffective and lacked a clear administrative or financial role. In

1959, the Commission on National Education was established.

Once again the Commission, like earlier bodies of its nature, took a
very general view of the education system. School and college
education continued to cry out for reform. During the next decade,
as a result of the nationalization of all educational institutes of
Pakistan, the entire system of education went under the direct
control of the State.
The participation of the private sector in education system was
totally eliminated. However, in 1979, a government commission
reviewed the consequences of nationalization and concluded that in
view of the poor participation rates at all levels of education, the
public sector could no longer be the country's sole provider of
education. By the mid-1980s, private educational institutions were,
once again, allowed to operate on the condition that they complied
with government recognized standards.
The University Grants Commission (UGC), the predecessor of the
Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, was established, in
1974, by an Act of Parliament. It was mandated that the UGC
maintain the standards of education and establish a uniform policy
aimed at bringing about national unity and cohesion.
On September 11, 2002, the recommendations of SCHE were
translated into action, through Presidential Ordinance No LIII of
2002. The HEC was established as a central body that would
facilitate quality assurance of higher education in both the public
and private sectors, and link funding by the Federal Government
for public universities to quality performance. Ultimately, the HEC,
an independent autonomous body, under its own Commission, with
the Prime Minister as the controlling authority, replaced the UGC.
The HEC opened up new vistas of reformative change in the field
of higher education.

Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman was appointed as the founder Chairman

of the HEC with the status of a Federal Minister. The Chairperson,
Members, Servants, Consultants and Advisors of the Commission
are all deemed, by law, to be public servants.

1.2 OBJECTIVES
The HEC Vision is:
Transformation of our institutions of higher education into world
class seats of learning, equipped to foster high quality education,
scholarship and research, to produce enlightened citizens with
strong moral and ethical values that build a tolerant and
pluralistic society rooted in the culture of Pakistan.
Some of the main objectives of HEC are:

Provide support for enhancement of the quality of higher

education and research.

Facilitate funding for higher education based on quality of

performance and needs.

Serve as a national resource for higher education, based on

its comprehensive nation-wide information, and data on
experience in other countries.

Participate in the formulation of Federal Government policy

on matters of higher education.

Advise institutions, the Provincial Governments and the

Federal Government on the planning and development of
higher education.

Advise the Federal and Provincial Governments on all

proposals for granting a charter to award degrees, in both
the public and private sectors.

Co-ordinate the initial and subsequent periodic assessment

of the quality of academic programmes in established and

new institutions of higher education, in order to support

accreditation and maintenance of academic standards.

Guide the public, the Provincial Governments and the

Federal Government, on the legal status and functional
value of degrees and other certification of academic
achievement given by public and private institutions of
higher education, and recommend appropriate action.

Support the cause of national integration and cohesion

through co-curricular activities.

Perform such other functions incidental or consequential to

the discharge of the aforesaid functions.

The Basic/core aims of Higher education commission are

(i) Faculty Development
(ii) Improving Access and Learning
(iii) Excellence in Research
(iv) Relevance to National Priorities.
And the Supporting aims are
(i) Leadership, Governance and Management
(ii) Quality Assessment, Standards and Accreditation and
(iii) Infrastructure Development: Physical and Technological.

1.3 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF

HEC

Advisor
HRM
DG
Services
Director
Services

Director
Finance

D. Director
Services

D. Director
Finance

A.
Director
Services

A. Director
Finance

Chairperson

Executive
Director

Member
O&P

Advisor QA

Member
Academics

Advisor M&E

Advisor HRD
&
Scholarships

Advisor
Academics

DG IT

DG Finance
Planning

DG Planning

DG
Developmen
t

Director
Planning

Director
Developmen
t

Director

D. Director
Planning

D. Director
Developmen
t

D.
Director

Project
Cordinat
or

A. Director
Planning

A. Director

A.
Director

Project
Manager

Developmen
t

IT

Director
PERN

Assistant
PM

Note: In this structure I have mentioned the top management and

also opened the Director Generals directly reporting to Member
Operations & Planning, the Advisors hierarchy is mentioned on
the next page.

Advisor QA

DG
QA

MD
QA

Dire
ctor

PC
QA

Advisor HRM

DG
A&A

Advisor M&E

Advisor HRD
&
Scholarships

DG M&E

DG HRD &
Scholarships

DG
Acad
eics

DG
DGLI
R&D

PD

Direc
tor

Direc
tor

Direc
tor

DG
M&C

Direc
tor
A&A

Direc
tor
M&C

Director
M&E

Advisor
Academics

D.Dir
ecto
r QA

PM

D.Dir
ector

D.Dir
ector

D.Dir
ector

SP
M

PM

D.Dir
ector

D.Dir
ector

D.Dir
ector

A.Dir
ecto
r

APM

A.Dir
ector

A.Dir
ector

A.Dir
ector

PM

AP
M

A.Dir
ector

A.Dir
ector

A.Dir
ector

APM

RO

Abreviations used in Organizational structure of HEC:

O&P: Operations and Planning

HRM: Human

Resource Management
QA: Quality Assurance

M&E: Maintainance

and Evaluation
HRD: Human Resource Development

D.Director: Deputy

Director
A.Director: Assisstant Director

PM: Project Manager

APM: Assisstant Project Manager

A&A: Attestation and

accredation
M&C: Meetings and Coordination

R&D: Research and

Development
LI: Learning Innovation
Manager

SPM: Senior Project

RO: Research Officer

1.4 SERVICES OFFERED BY HEC

Services provided by HEC
HEC provides consultancy and financial assistance to Higher
education Institutions

1 Access to Higher Education

1. Establishment of New University
2.

Opening of Sub campuses of the university in less

developed regions
3. Infrastructure development
Academic Building
Administrative Buildings
4. University Accreditation
5. Degree Attestation & Equivalence

2. Quality Education
1. Faculty development

Teacher training

Faculty hiring

Foreign

&

local

Scholarships

development

Tenure Track System (salary packages)

Faculty Exchange Program

2. Access to Information

Digital Library

E- books & e-journals

PERN connectivity

Video Conferencing

for

faculty

Pakistan Research Repository

Computerization & Networking facility

3. Quality Assurance

Curriculum designing

Plagiarism case

4. Research Enhancement

Research Grant

Travel Grant

Grant Seminar & Workshop

3. Relevance with economy

University Industry Linkage

Business Incubation Centers

Resource generating activities

Technology Parks

4. Management assistance

Capacity Building of university Executives

Training courses for Administrative & Managerial Staff

Campus Management Solution

ERP

5. Facilities for Students & Faculty/Staf

Sport Facilities

Hostel Facility for Students

Residential Facilities for Staff & Faculty

Student Services Centre

Career Counseling Centre

Transport Facilities

2. LEARNING AND EXPERIENCE

2.1 Internship Duration & Rationale for
Selection
I have worked as internee in Finance Department of Higher
education commission (HEC) for eight weeks i:e from 4th July to
27th august 2010. During this period of internship I worked with
highly skilled and experienced professionals and it was a golden
opportunity for me to learn practical things related to financial
management in government sector. The reason for me to have
internship in this department was that they deal with the financial
issues, managing the money and its distribution to HEIs on the
basis of their needs, apart from that finance department also
provide funds for the development of HEIs, and the things learnt
from here would be beneficial in my MBA finance degree, as it
helps me to understand how the finance is planned in organizations.
The basics tasks that I performed were maintaining record and
data related to recurring budgets of the universities, data entry
of quarter wise utilization reports of recurring budget, preparing
budget execution reports. During my tenure of internship I
performed functions that are related to middle management work at
finance department.

2.2 Details of Task Performed

During my internship tenure I performed almost all the functions of
finance department but the specific functions I performed were

Maintaining record and data related to recurring budgets

of the universities.

Data entry of quarter wise utilization reports of recurring

budget.

Preparing budget execution reports

Apart from these functions I also get knowledge about different

functions performed by finance department of HEC.
1. Management of the Finance Division of the Higher
Education Commission.
2. Revision and submission to the Federal Government the
recurring budgets for public Sector Institutions.
3. Propose allocation of funds to public sector Institutions out
of bulk financial provisions received from the government
and other sources, on a performance and need basis.
4. Reviews and examines the financial requirements of public
sector institutions.
5. Disburse funds to these institutions on the basis of annual
recurring needs, as well as for development projects and
research based specific proposals.
6. To ensure a significant proportion of the resources allocated
to research support and libraries while proposing funds.
7. Evaluating budget proposals of Universities, Centers &
Institutes
8. Monitoring Federal funding and examining Universities
expenditure
9. Preparation of HEC budget, incur and control expenditure.

10. Counseling, guidance and co-ordination with universities

for budget preparation and on financial matters.
11. Advise and facilitate for establishment of endowment funds
for

higher

education

with

contribution

from

the

Government as well as non-government agencies.

12. Arrange Foreign Exchange for HEC Scholarships Scheme
and other development programs form the finance
Division / State Bank of Pakistan.
13. Liaison with British Council, UNESCO, USAID and donor
agencies for funding to HEC and assist launching of
programs under various MOU signed with HEC.
14. Advice on financial matters to ensure expenditure
according to the rules and within the approved budget.
15. Provide functional guidance to finance staff at HEC
regional centers.
16. Coordinate the audit of accounts of HEC by the office of
Auditor General of Pakistan and internal/external auditors
of HEC.
17. Coordinate and liaise between various departments such
as:-Universities/Centers/Institutes etc.

2.3 Main task

During my internship program in HEC finance department the
main function I learned to perform was:

Maintaining record and data related to recurring budgets of

the universities.

Maintenance of the financial records about the periodic

budgets of the universities, which should be granted to them
in the basis of their need. For this purpose the assessment of
the need and requirements of the universities is done. Any
kind of new project started by the university is also
accounted for. After assessing the whole need then data of

the recurring budget was maintained. A proper record

showing all the granted budget is maintained.

Data entry of quarter wise utilization reports of recurring

budget.

Record of the periodic budget granted to the universities

and where that budget is utilized is also maintained. This
data is maintained with the coordination of universities.
Universities provide complete report of the budget amount
utilized by them. On the basis of that report data entry of
the budget utilization is done.

Preparing budget execution reports.

Reports about the proper execution of the budget are

maintained. In these reports data about the budgeting
process is maintained.

3. SWOT ANALYSIS

3.1

SWOT Analysis of HEC

3.1.1 Strengths

1. Effervescent public sector organization.

2. At the completion of intermediate/ graduation students have

hundreds of new option in public and private universities
for admission.
3. Research recognized as a key university responsibility

4. Nearly 8,000 new potential faculty members with PhDs

available in next 5 years
5. Made agree all the public and private universities to
establish QA systems and follow the quality standards.
6. Internationally Compatible Academic System.
7. Scholarships are offered for all over the world; its
recognition of the standard of education in country
8. Significant International visibility and Respect
9. Hiring of Foreign professors on HEC panel in public
universities to uplift the educational standards.
10. World class IT infrastructure and well equipped laboratories
11. HEC proved to be honest to the universities/institutes in
funds allocation and advising.
3.1.2 Weakness

1. Despite all the achievements of HEC in recent years its

image is not built to that extent as it should be.
2. Though HEC has established Quality enhancement cells in
most of the universities but the colleges that are offering
graduate degrees are not included in that list and the quality
of graduates produced by the colleges is not quite changed
in recent past.
3. Weak Institutional Communication
4. Quality Assurance not institutionalized in better way and
the private students are being left out.
5. Financial Basis of HEC are weak due to
6. Excessive Government Dependence
7. Fees i.e Self Finance not sorted out
8. Still HEC not able to establish strong relation between
Universities and industries
9. There is poor relation between the universities and the
communities

10. Neglected university administration and faculty support

services
11. Faculty hiring process adopted by HEC is problematic
12. The skill polishing of new graduates from university is
missing
13. In some cases it seems HEC personnel are not ready to
accept the changes
14. HEC has not paid due attention to the social science
discipline
15. Still out dated and obsolete Government structure is being
followed

3.1.3 OPPORTUNITIES
1. To built the Industrial Linkages with universities and HEC
2. To built Community linkages
3. Policy Leadership of Pakistan
4. City-Based Academic Linkages
5. Best-Practice Sharing by Workshops
6. Fund Raising
7. Opportunities of External Funding i.e from

EU Programs

US Funding and Linkages

Foundations

8. Targeted Economic Focus

9. Institutionalize Tenure Track
10. Research Commercialization

Technology Incubator

Venture Capital Funding

Spin-off Companies

3.1.4 Threats
1. Financial Crisis
2. Political instability

3. Return of Mediocrity
4. Lamentable Interference
5. Political and Community dis-ownership
6. Stakeholder indifference

3.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
HEC should have multi-dimensional response strategy; means
HEC should able to address each of the weakness in better and
systematic way and should get maximum of benefit from each of
the available opportunities. Also HEC should have close eye on the
issues they face and there should be proper mechanism for issue
identification and how to deal with that issue.
Should have multi-dimensional Response by:

Addressing each Weakness

Benefited from each Opportunity

Should have proper procedure for Issue Identification:

Formation of Issue (WO) Committees

Identification of Performance Indicators

To know the progress is being made in addressing the issue that

was identified:

Set realistic time-bound targets

Independent Monitoring Committee

Monitor progress against time-bound targets

These processes should be adopted by HEC and universities for

improvements.

4. CONCLUSION
The basic aim of this internship was to implement the knowledge I
have gained during the MBA program in organization and gain
practical experience of working on projects. By the grace of
Almighty Allah I have achieved what I aim to get from that
internship. This was very pleasant experience for me and I got to
learn the government organization structure and how the work is
being done in government organization. Also I got opportunity to
implement the concepts I gathered in different courses I studied in
MBA, during the internship. And by working with highly
experienced personnel in finance department and throwing in my
knowledge that I gained during MBA helped me in building my
confidence on my skills and knowledge. In short the internship and
this MBA degree evolved a new motivation in me and now I am
able to look the things in holistic way.
By the SWOT analysis I performed for the HEC, I concluded that
overall HEC has improved his standards in past few years but still
they are lagging in many fields. Such as still many colleges that are
producing graduates are not under their monitoring, also still they
are not able to build strong links between universities and
industries, universities and the communities and also between the
universities.
There are number of open opportunities available for HEC to grab
them and improve the performance. HEC should have multidimensional response strategy; means HEC should able to address
each of the weakness in better and systematic way and should get
maximum benefit from the available opportunities.

REFERENCE
http://www.hec.gov.pk

APPENDIX
Abbreviations used in the Report
O&P: Operations and Planning
HRM: Human Resource Management
QA: Quality Assurance
M&E: Maintainance and Evaluation
HRD: Human Resource Development
D.Director: Deputy Director
A.Director: Assisstant Director
PM: Project Manager
APM: Assisstant Project Manager
A&A: Attestation and accredation
M&C: Meetings and Coordination
R&D: Research and Development
LI: Learning Innovation
SPM: Senior Project Manager
RO: Research Officer
SCHE: Steering Committee for Higher Education
HEI: Higher Education Institutions
UGC: University Grants Commission