Associate degree course marred by challenges

Having established an associate degree programme, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has not followed through on implementing it, which has resulted in higher education institutions finding loopholes in the system and students feeling uncertain about their future.

Giving in to the HEC’s pressure, a majority of institutions eliminated their early graduation programmes and replaced them with two-year associate degrees after being informed that the two-year diploma’s credentials would no longer be verified.

Consequently, a degree programme called ‘Associate with an Advanced Curriculum of Graduation’ was launched.

Under the HEC guidelines, it was also mandatory to have a semester system for the associate degrees and a new curriculum but higher education institutions have continued with the system already in place.

Therefore, in essence, only the degree’s title has changed and students are still studying the same curriculum as the one from the scrapped early graduation programme.

Resultantly, they will not graduate as they would need to complete a further two years of university education to do so.

The same issue has plagued the student populace of Karachi University, Sindh’s largest higher education institution, as they are being taught the syllabus of B.com, BSc, and BA in an associate degree.

“We brought up this issue at the most recent meeting of the Academic Council of the university,” informed Professor Naeem Khalid, Principal of Government Degree Boys College, Gulistan-e-Johar, and an elected member of the Academic Council of the University of Karachi. Resultantly, the council formed a committee to offer its suggestions on the matter, as per Professor Khalid.

However, Professor Dr Anila Amber Malik, from the Karachi University, believes that the committee will do little to resolve the situation.

“A committee was also formed under the chairmanship of the former dean but it has been over a year and it is yet to submit a report,” she said.

Dr Malik was of the view that there were numerous challenges with the semester system’s implementation in colleges, out of which training professors to actually implement it “is a primary issue.”

When asked about the impact the implementation challenges were having on students, Dr Zafar Hussain, Director of Examinations of the University of Karachi, replied: “students are confused about their future.”

Dr Hussain said that this was evident by the data they had on record. “Less than 50% of students enrolled for the associate degree compared to past enrollment rates of the two-year degree programme. Even the number of students giving private B.com and BA exams has decreased from more than 20,000 to less than 10,000.”

Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, the incumbent Chairman of the HEC, when asked for his views on the present state of the associate degree programme, conceded that the PhD and undergraduate degree policies provided by HEC have several flaws.

“The universities have also not fulfilled their responsibilities. We have now examined all of the policies and will shortly provide an updated undergraduate and PhD policy that will be devoid of these flaws,” he said.

Dr Ahmed further said that the actual challenges to the education system were quite different and had been largely ignored.

“It is evident that Sindh’s government institutions have the poorest infrastructure. There is a teacher shortage; the labs and libraries are outdated. However, in response, the associate degree concept was launched,” the HEC Chairman regretted while talking to The Express Tribune.