Post-graduate programmes: Universities violate HEC criteria

Review committee warns varsities of funding stoppage.

ISLAMABAD:

Almost all the postgraduate colleges in the country ignore the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) guidelines or criteria, in one way or the other in offering doctorate programmes.

The HEC has issued a set of criteria for all universities offering PhD and MPhil programmes. However, most universities disregard even the most basic of these criterion, The Express Tribune has learnt.

According to an official, the commission has warned some universities that their funding would be stopped if they failed to implement its criteria.

A PhD review committee of the HEC has expressed dismay at the universities’ lack of compliance, after visiting them.

The committee has formulated a set of observations and recommendations sending them to the institutions with an ultimatum that either they strictly follow standard procedure or shut down their programmes.

Universities, the HEC has warned and issued observations, include Quaid-i-Azam University, International Islamic University (IIUI), Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Punjab University, Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Federal Urdu University, Islamabad, Karachi University, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Government College University, Lahore; Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi; University of Education, Lahore and others.

The committee noted that AIOU conducts self-designed/generated admission tests instead of following the test formulated by the HEC. It also observed that the university does not conduct GRE exams. It recommended that PhD/MPhil supervisors should be limited to regular faculty (with PhD qualification).

The committee noted that the Department of Food and Nutrition had only one PhD faculty member, instead of the required three.

It directed the department to discontinue its PhD programmes. The committee also recommended that copies of completed thesis should be submitted to the HEC and social sciences faculties should enhance their international research publications.

The HEC has issued a similar observation to NUML. The university also does
not conduct GRE exams or HEC’s tests.

Moreover, some PhD scholars were found working under the supervision of part-time faculty members. The committee also noted that the university’s international research papers were minimal.

About the Federal Urdu University, the committee stated that the critical number of experienced faculty members was lacking in all the departments offering post-graduate programmes.

The committee further stated that the university was unable to ensure high academic quality of its programmes due to shortage of faculty and laboratories and the absence of a proper administrative structure. The committee advised the university to concentrate on the Masters programmes and embark on PhD programmes only when the required facilities and infrastructure were available.

Considering all this, the HEC deems it appropriate to “help doctoral scholars out of their situation.”

The committee observed similar loopholes at IIUI.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2011.