A three-member Planning Team from University of Swat comprising of Dr. Umar Hayat Director Financial Aid, Dr. Haider Ali, Director Advanced Studies and Dr. Muhammad Tariq, Director Quality Enhancement participated in a two-day workshop on integrated Strategic plan organized for 16 partner universities of the HESSA project. The University Planning team members were trained on the strategic planning process by international resource persons from University of Utah. This initial Training will be complemented with a week-long extensive training for university planners in December, 2023. The training program draws on the knowledge base developed by the Society of College and University Planners (SCUP) to support 16 selected universities in Pakistan participating in Higher Education System Strengthening Activity (HESSA) project in order to develop their strategic business plans to ensure university level sustainability. During the two days the planning teams were introduced to strategic planning processes including planning inventories, internal and external evaluation, strategic alternatives, (SCUP) framework. A strategic plan case study of the University of Utah was discussed with participants of the training in order to demonstrate vertical and horizontal integrated planning processes for formulating Strategic business plans.
The event was led by the University of Utah senior professor and Chief-of-Party Prof. Dr. Aslam Chaudry and facilitators from USA Ray White, Mike Barbar Principal Investigator HESSA from University of Utah and Dr. Ayesha Razzaque, Deputy Chief-of-Party in HESSA Project. The HESSA project is sponsored by the United Stated Agency for International Development (USAID) and jointly implemented by University Utah and University of Alabama. In addition to University of Swat Planning team members senior administrators and faculty members from sixteen (16) HESSA partner universities also participated, including; IBA Karachi, National University of Science and Technology (NUST), University of Peshawar (UoP), Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM), University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Lahore College for Women University (LCWU), Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University (SBKWU) Quetta, Karakoram International University (KIU) Gulgit Baltistan, Women University Swabi, Peoples University of Medical Sciences (PUMS), Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS) Quetta, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, National University of Technology (NUTECH) Islamabad, and Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST).
