Queues at HEC: Degree verification remains a challenge for many

HEC warns public against engaging dubious agents for verification

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has warned the public against engaging dubious agents when applying for degree attestation or equivalence certificates.

The matter came to light when HEC noticed a rise in incidents of fake stamps pasted on the original degrees by the agents.

The HEC on Sunday published a second advertisement in two months warning the public to stay away from agents and consultants. “It has been noticed that contrary to the HEC attestation procedure, the agents paste fake stamps on the original degrees or transcripts.” The degrees with bogus stamps are confiscated when submitted at the HEC.

The commission has advised the public to go through the proper procedure for degree verification, which is to apply manually at HEC’s country-wide offices or send the documents through a courier service.

A herculean task

Degree attestation is a herculean task at the HEC headquarters. Applicants start queuing up at the counters hours before the office opening time. After getting a token, they submit the documents and fee at the counter and then have to wait for five to seven hours.

The scene is often messy and noisy and at times brawls break out among applicants or with the staff. Students complain that after hours of waiting in queues their applications are rejected due to some missing document, a mistake in spelling or some other discrepancy.

This and many other problems force applicants to take to agents and brokers for timely and hassle-free process. This is where the problem starts.

Using the third party for degree verification has landed many in trouble with their documents being confiscated for not having following proper procedure.

“Agents deceiving the public with fake stamps are a problem both for us and the applicants as they get their degrees confiscated,” said an HEC official.

Another official said the number of bogus degrees being sent to them for verification is on the rise. This has led to the HEC announcing that cases of confiscated degrees will be forwarded to the Federal Investigation Agency for investigation and action.

Besides, the attestation department at the HEC has no online data of the degrees issued by its accredited universities. They are left with manually checking the documents, for example through the quality of paper and stamp.

HEC Chairperson Dr Mukhtar Ahmed has on a number of occasions complained about universities not sharing their record with the commission. He, however, said that reorganisation of the whole verification process is on the cards.

Recently, the HEC blocked a website providing online services for degree verification through courier services. The commission has also set up its regional centres at Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta to facilitate the public and reduce the burden on the headquarters.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2015.