HEC lacks modern tech for verifying degrees

Attestation and Accreditation division has no online database to check credibility of certificates

ISLAMABAD:

Even 13 years after it came into existence, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has not been able to devise an unorthodox way to recognise, verify or equate degrees of universities.

The attestation and accreditation (AA) division of HEC looks into the affairs of degree verification, equivalence since its inception but uses conventional means to check the credibility of a degree as there is no online database available to countercheck it with the relevant varsities.



The HEC only contacts academics when the degree is of some high-profile person or there are signs of doubt. Director General of AA Muhammad Raza Chohan told The Express Tribune that there were numerous physical records and academic parameters that were ascertained.

However, officials involved in this section have confirmed that they do not usually seek enrolment and other details from a university of the degree holders.

One of the attestation and accreditation department officials said that there are several institutions in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Azad Jammu and Kashmir which issue back dated degrees after striking underhand deals but they cannot do anything about the same. "Since there is nothing wrong with those degrees, we are helpless to confiscate their degrees knowingly because they fulfill every criterion," he added.



On this matter Chohan stated that they need evidence but are clueless when asked how they could verify such a degree when there is no online record available.



The attestation and accreditation division has been warning its staff about some specific institutions and directing them to dually verify degrees issued by them but the direction is useless when there is no synchronised system to check enrolments and attendants of such degree holders.

The HEC refused to share data of confiscated degrees since 2002 but stated that the number is about 300 over the last four years. These are the ones which are fake, forged or have fake stamps from somewhere else.

The issue of fake degrees has become a challenge for HEC and earlier this year it announced that it will refer cases of such offenders to the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency. When approached, the concerned authority did not share the details about the number of cases referred to the probe bodies.



According to HEC chairperson Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, to stop issuance of such dubious degrees they have finalised a software in collaboration with the National Database Regulatory Authority (Nadra) that will issue a specific code for each degree.

An investigation is also under way against one of the officials of attestation and accreditation department who was transferred in July for allegedly verifying degrees of University of Newport without the knowledge of his superiors.

The HEC has refused to share the details of this case as well while it is also tightlipped about another ex-official of the same department who allowed one of the PhD programmes of Lahore Leeds University to start while the quality division had disallowed it earlier.



The programme never got off the ground but the development was a clue for top bosses as to which length some staffers could go in underhand deals.

The HEC chairperson also said that investigations are under way against the wrongdoers and attestation and accreditation division will be empowered for better functioning as construction of a new state-of-the-art building is also on the cards.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2015.