Equivalence Standard: HEC urged to revise degree policy

ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has issued a policy note to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to revise its Equivalence Standard (ES) for Master’s degree programmes to create an exception for those who attained their master’s degrees in a period prior to the introduction of equivalence standard, to create a level playing field among all the Master’s degree holders. CCP took notice of concerns raised with regard to ES introduced by the HEC in Qualification Framework and Revised Roadmap for Business Education - 2012. The Commission acknowledges that the initiative taken by HEC to introduce the four-year bachelor programme was in order to make the Pakistani degrees compatible with the foreign ones. However, the new standard should not affect the degree holders who earned their degrees in accordance with the standard prevalent at the time of their schooling.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2014.