HEC-barred Al Khair varsity still enrolling

Al Kahirs rolls have swelled to more than 1,100 students after May 2 of the year it was barred from enrolling.

ISLAMABAD: Although the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has barred Al Khair University authorities from enrolling students after April 30, 2009, its rolls have swelled to more than 1,100 students after May 2 of the same year. Dr Attaur Rehman, the former HEC chairman and information technology minister, has been one of the university’s most vocal critics.

In an interview with The Express Tribune, Dr Rehman suggested that HEC should remove the university’s name from its online list of recognised universities.

“Any university which is no longer recognised by the HEC should not be included on its website,” Dr Rehman said. “This will prevent students from being wrongly informed about the status of a university.”

Acknowledging that HEC had been “forced” to recognise degrees awarded by the university after April 30 this year, he said that the institution violated the minimum requirement set by the cabinet.

Referring to inclusion of Al Khair University among names of recognised universities, HEC’s executive director Dr Sohail Naqvi said that the commission’s adviser for quality assurance will head a committee of four educational experts to decide the fate of the said university.

The spokesperson for HEC, Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, said that HEC had already written to Azad Kashmir president to close down the university.Vice-Chancellor of Al Khair University Dr Abdul Qadir Ansari claimed that his university was not registering fresh students, saying that strict action will be taken against people who are swindling students in the name of the university.

He said that the university’s administration had written a letter to the HEC to send its team to examine the campus of the university in AJK but the HEC never acknowledged their calls.

However, HEC chairman Dr Javid Leghari said: “No letter has been written by the vice-chancellor of Al Khair University regarding examining new campus.”

During the second chancellors’ meeting in May 2006, the chairman recalled, it had been decided that if Al-Khair University does not meet the Commission criteria then “qualifications of any student enrolled or admitted to the university or any of its unlawfully affiliated colleges in Pakistan after July 1, 2007, will not be accepted by the commission.”

Documents obtained by The Express Tribune suggested that the university has registered some 1,115 students, including 32 foreign students, after May 2, 2009.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2010.