Higher Education Commission. PHOTO: FILE
The commission gave out a half-page advertisement in various dailies on Sunday warning of “stern legal action against non-compliers”.
The HEC has been issuing alerts and warnings and also published a list of unapproved institutes on its website but the practice continues unabated. The commission also wrote to provincial higher education departments and governors, who are chancellors of public-sector universities in the provinces, but no progress has been made so far.
Under the rules, a university has to obtain an NOC from HEC, which is issued after the HEC ensures that the institute has a certain number of research facilities and qualified faculty.
The commission has listed at least 26 unapproved university campuses. In total, there are around 140 degree-awarding institutes in the country functioning without the HEC approval.
The HEC has told 13 universities to close their PhD programmes after it found them lacking in faculty and infrastructure requirements. The majority, however, have not even bothered to apply for an NOC.
“HEC will request the relevant authorities to take action against unlawful universities, affiliated colleges, foreign arrangement operating in the country and conduct surprise visits,” reads the advertisement.
The commission seems toothless to move against powerful groups running illegal universities and colleges.
Sunday’s newspaper ad said the “HEC will visit recognised and unrecognised institutes to ensure that academic standards are completely fulfilled”. An HEC spokesperson said visits to campuses will help raise public awareness of the issue.
There are a number of violations being made by various universities at present. Some universities were granted charters to operate in a certain area but have opened campuses in other cities too. Then there are institutes that are functioning with no legal status whatsoever.
As per the HEC record, around 57 public universities have granted affiliations to 3,328 colleges across the country. The biggest concern when it comes to these degree-granting institutes is the quality of education and lack of checks at affiliated colleges.
The highest number of affiliations has been given by the Punjab University, Karachi University, University of Peshawar, University of Sargodha and the University of Balochistan. Some programmes being offered by the affiliated colleges are not even offered by the parent universities.
Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Multan’s Lahore campus was shut down by the provincial government on the request of HEC but it reopened without meeting the requirements.
VCs of University of Sargodha and BZU in a meeting with HEC had strongly opposed the idea of shutting down their sub-campuses.
HEC Chairperson Dr Mukhtar Ahmed told The Express Tribune that they would ask provincial governments to take action against illegal degree-awarding institutes.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 21st, 2015.
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