Varsities barred from admissions

HEC suspends computing admissions at 44 universities across Pakistan

KARACHI:

A crackdown on underperforming computing programmemes has sent shockwaves through Pakistan's higher education sector, with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) suspending new admissions in Computer Science and related disciplines at 44 universities and degree-awarding institutions across the country following disappointing results in a national competency assessment.

The decision was taken on the basis of the National Skills Competency Test (NSCT) 2026, a nationwide evaluation conducted among Computer Science students to assess the quality of computing education and the industry readiness of graduates. The HEC has also released the list of affected institutions, comprising both public and private sector universities.

According to official details, four institutions in Karachi have been barred from admitting new students to their computing programmemes. These include Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University Lyari (BBSUL), Iman Institute of Management and Sciences, Ilmaa University, and Millennium Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship.

Several universities from interior Sindh have also been affected, including Begum Nusrat Bhutto Women University, University of Larkano, Sindh Agriculture University, and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Sakrand.