islamabad - Chairman Higher Education Commission Prof. Dr Mukhtar Ahmed has announced to double the funding under HEC’s Thematic Research Grants Programme, which is aimed to address the contemporary issues of the country.
While addressing the audience during concluding ceremony of the two-day 3rd International Social Sciences Conference held at the HEC Secretariat,
the chairman HEC said that the research scholars who have theoretical, conceptual, methodological and policy orientation background may apply for grants under the programme. “The research projects may belong to any of the social sciences and humanities disciplines or may be inter-disciplinary in nature. Groups or individual researchers from public and private sector universities can submit their proposals against different themes,” he added.
The conference titled “State and Society of Pakistan: Challenges and Opportunities” concluded with a pledge by the academicians and researchers working in different fields of social sciences to focus on research of high-quality and having direct relevance with socio-economic challenges faced by the Pakistani society.
The participants of the conference, involving social scientists from within and outside the country, agreed to develop and promoting a multi-disciplinary approach to study the society in Pakistan, forging a common research agenda to meet contemporary social, economic, political, cultural and environmental challenges and identify solutions, examining latest methodological tools, conceptual paradigms and techniques to address the challenging research issues facing Pakistan.
Dr Mukhtar Ahmed also announced on the occasion that the 4th Social Sciences Conference will be hosted by the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) in collaboration with HEC and that its schedule will be announced soon.
The chairman said that HEC has been endeavoring to promote and intensify research in social sciences. “We have set up a dedicated social sciences section at HEC to identify realities of diverse social and human issues which Pakistan is facing. Thematic Research Grants Programme, whose third phase has been launched, is specifically designed to address contemporary issues of the country,” he added. The Chairman further said that the Committee for Development of Social Sciences and Humanities in Pakistan (CDSSHP) established by HEC has been tasked to deliberate upon and identify the problems and recommend immediate short-term as well as long-term measures to make social sciences education vibrant, dynamic and attuned to the present and future needs of Pakistan.
The conference recommended that HEC should make sure that the social sciences conference becomes an annual event organized on a regular basis. The future conferences should have a special session for MPhil/PhD students in which they are trained in methodology, etc and prominent scholars who will attend the conference may guide the students in their research work. Social Sciences Committee and Conference should have their dedicated webpages.  Medium of presentation during the conference should include Urdu. Translation arrangements should be done by HEC.
Grants should be given for establishing centres of excellence in language, folklore, Islamic studies, ethnics, philosophies and futuristic. All the social sciences faculties should have at least one research journal for dissemination of research done by students and faculty members.
One time grant should be given to all HEC recognized journals for establishing regular offices of the journals. Incentives should be given to revise the journals that are current discontinued for financial or other reasons.
For capacity building, internship of students should be started in the disciplines of social sciences, which will enhance the professional skills of the graduate students. Quality should be ensured in the process of student intake (enrolment) at the universities, instead of enrolling students for merely financial reasons. Career fairs should be organised at university level that would bring various organizations that could recruit from students. Student training workshops should be part of the conference, so that the students of various universities get the best out of the conferences.
It was further recommended that in order to promote networking among scholars of social sciences there should be discipline-based societies/associations through out the country.  International collaboration in social sciences should be increased so that mutually beneficial relationship is built as well as a directory of social scientists should be made.
It was also suggested that there should be accreditation of social sciences in Pakistan, besides encouraging multidisciplinary approaches to develop more enriched research in social sciences. HEC website should introduce a repository where authors may directly upload abstracts, summaries and recommendations of any studies already done on Pakistan.  HEC should celebrate social scientists for their contribution through ceremonies, awards, etc. Conducive environment in universities should be made for academic freedom. Private universities should encourage social sciences. Community service should be made mandatory at graduate level.