ISLAMABAD: The heads of higher education commissions from eight member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) on Tuesday decided to work together to achieve the common objective of socio-economic and leadership development in the region.

The two-day meeting of the committee of heads of HEC/ university grant commissions of the Saarc member states, chaired by HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, concluded here with a resolve to work jointly for the promotion of higher education.

It was also decided that the culture of quality higher education in the member states would be promoted and the members would be working for the establishment of a Saarc quality assurance network.

`We will establish the Saarc quality assurance network for quality higher education in the region,` Dr Mukhtar Ahmed told Dawn. He said all the members decided to consider developing a mechanism for a collaborative research programme among the institutions of higher learning in member states to address common issues such as energy, water, environment and natural disasters etc.

Spealcing at the closing ceremony, Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Engineer Baleeghur Rehman underlined the need for enhancing cooperation among the Saare countries for the development of higher education.

The minister said the government would provide every possible support to the committee for achieving the targets.

`Education diplomacy is very important to bridge gaps among South Asian nations,` he said and added that there was a big room for collaborative research in many areas.

`We need to come up with indigenous solutions to our local problems,` he said.

Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said the participants presented useful suggestions on how to make the forum more effective for the development of higher education in all the member states of Saarc.

After deliberations, the meeting decided that the HEC would prepare a draft agreement on cooperation in the area of higher education for circulation among the member states through the Saarc Secretariat by the end of October for views/comments The agreement would focus on the integrated regional approach in spearheading the common objective of socioeconomic and leadership development through promoting higher education.

It was agreed that each member state would develop its national qualification framework and align it with the assessment and accreditation mechanism to ensure access to quality higher education.-A Reporter