Admissions halted at VU after varsity fails to acquire NOC

Without prior NOC, commission does not recognise programme and degree awarded by any institute

LAHORE: The Virtual University of Pakistan (VU) has halted admissions to its MS and MPhil programmes for Spring 2018 as it has been unable to acquire the no objection certificate (NOC) from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC). The NOC is required to offer MS and MPhil degree programmes.

The programmes include MS Computer Science, MPhil Education, MS Business Administration, MS Bioinformatics, MS Biotechnology, MS Genetics, MS Zoology, MS Mathematics and MS Molecular Biology. The VU opened admissions for the spring 2018 semester on February 18.

However, without getting the NOC, the VU gave admissions in these programmes to around 4,500 students last year. According to the HEC policy, a degree programme without the acquisition of the NOC, would not be recognised by the commission, putting the future of students at stake.

The policy requires varsities to secure a NOC from HEC before launching any MS, MPhil, PhD or equivalent programmes. The policy was set in place by HEC for programmes that had been started after November 7, 2013.



HEC's policy stated that without a prior NOC, the commission would not recognise the programme and degree awarded by the institute would also not be attested by the commission.

The HEC website also has a list of approved programmes for the convenience of students which enlists all the MS, MPhil and PhD programmes approved by the commission.

According to the list available on the HEC website, 541 programmes have been listed. However, VU does not have a single MS, MPhil programme recognized by the HEC.

HEC spokesperson Ayesha Ikram confirmed that HEC had not granted NOC to the VU for the programmes. She, however, said that the VU had applied for the NOC for the programmes. HEC had given an opportunity to all institutions to get all pending issues rectified, she added.

When contacted, VU Spokesperson Qamar Riaz said that the institute had offered all programmes according to the varsity's mandate. He said that the VU had already applied for the NOC. He said that VU would offer all these programmes in the fall admissions, which would be offered in September 2018. "All rumours circulating regarding the closure of the degree programmes are baseless," he added.

Earlier, HEC barred enrollments in MS, MPhil and PhD programmes at 13 universities offering distance learning programmes.

In a letter, HEC told the varsities, "Further admissions in any of the distance education programmes being offered by universities are stopped immediately till finalisation of recommendation by the committee." It also asked the universities to shift the enrolled students to regular programmes.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2018.