KARACHI-Vice chancellors of 14 Pakistani varsities Wednesday held a consultative meeting under the USAID’s Higher Education System Strengthening Activity (HESSA).The meeting, hosted by IBA Karachi, was a follow up to the discussions held in the Vice Chancellors Strategic Dialogue organized in Islamabad during October 2022.The meeting was also attended by the HESSA/University of Utah team—Prof. Aslam Chaudhry and Prof. Mike Barber. The meeting reviewed the progress made so far by HESSA, future implementation roadmap, and emphasized the need to chalk out institution-specific plan for enhancing project impact. VCs expressed the need for initiating capacity building measures in academic management, strategic planning, and resource mobilization, among others. One of the key recommendations was to assess the university-specific training needs and provide technical assistance accordingly. Furthermore, the participating universities agreed to explore way forward for clustering their groups based on mutual thematic interests and capacity development needs to support knowledge sharing and internal learning. HESSA is a $19 million, USAID-funded program being implemented in collaboration with 16 Pakistani universities with a focus on strengthening universities’ capacity to deliver market-driven education and research to enhance graduate employability.