Hanging in balance: Fate of CIIT students still undecided

HEC chairperson to meet students today

ISLAMABAD: Despite clear directions from the parliamentary panels, the future of over 2,600 students of Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) hangs in the balance over a dual degree programme initiated in 2010 without the permission of Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).

Over 2,500 students of CIIT have been caught between rock and a hard place as the education commission and CIIT have yet to reach an amicable solution. The programme started in collaboration with the Lancaster University (LU) in UK but that turned out to be a trouble for the students.

On October 9, 2015 the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) decided that the HEC would only recognise CIIT’s local degrees and not that affiliated with Lancaster University (LU), which added to the confusion surrounding the status of the programme.



Different parliamentary panels had intervened to resolve the issue but no consensus could be reached between the three parties.

Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology took up the issue and non-implementation of the PAC directives earlier this month.

Both the HEC chief Mukhtar Ahmed and CIIT Rector Junaid Zaidi stated that soon the issue would be resolved. The committee gave three months to resolve the dispute at the earliest.

Speaking to The Express Tribune Ahmed said he discussed probable solutions with the LU pro-vice chancellor and an official of varsity’s quality assurance. “On Monday (October 15) Zaidi and HEC executive director will share notes of the meeting and next steps,” he said. He also stated that on Sunday(today) Zaidi will hold a meeting with the students in Lahore.

When asked about the breakthrough in the issue, Ahmed said there were about 800 students who completed their degrees and their case will be dealt separately from those 900 students who were still enrolled. “I am hopeful the issue will likely be resolved in the next month,” he said.

He warned that not a single varsity across the globe could start any programme inside the country without taking the local accreditation body on board  besides that foreign varsity had to register their programmes in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2016.