Islamabad, April 7, 2026 — The HEC Faculty Development Programme has upgraded the professional capacity of more than 300 university teachers across Pakistan, with 110 scholars having completed their PhD degrees and now contributing to national research and innovation.
Launched in 2017, the HEC Faculty Development initiative aims to raise teaching and research standards across public and private universities. To date the programme has awarded around 300 scholarships, distributed as 57 in batch I, 84 in batch II, 137 in batch III and 17 in batch IV, as part of a sustained effort to strengthen faculty expertise nationwide.
Under the scheme, faculty members holding a master’s degree with at least 18 years of education are eligible to apply. Scholars begin their doctoral research in Pakistan and, at an appropriate stage, undertake a research placement abroad of six to twelve months. These placements are arranged at universities ranked among the top 200 in the QS World University Rankings to provide advanced supervision and international exposure.
By combining local doctoral training with short-term international research stays, the HEC Faculty Development programme is designed to boost research output, enhance teaching quality and foster innovation within Pakistan’s higher education sector. The commission says the programme will continue to build academic capacity and support sustained improvements across universities nationwide.
