HEC reviews progress of 171 universities and close down 31 programmers in various universities

Islamabad:  Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has reviewed the progress of 171 universities of Pakistan as well as received 198 complaints against different universities and academia. Out of these 198 complaints 60 of them were proved, 90 complaints were not proved whereas the 38 degrees of faculty members were found plagiarized.

This statement was given by the chairperson of Higher Education Commission, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed at a press conference on Wednesday. Though, the higher education system of the country had several flaws however since the last one and half year the HEC took different steps to streamline the system, he said, adding that for this reason sometimes 'out of box' steps against violators became a duty of the HEC.

Chairperson of HEC stated that out of total 198 complaints six cases could not be continued as they had been challenged in the different courts.

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He furthermore said that after Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Lahore sub-campus issue, "We (HEC) also started to strictly observe the affiliated campuses of the universities crosswise the country under the public private partnership programme."

For this reason, the establishment of a one quality enhancement cell in every university had been declared mandatory, he added.

HEC closes 31 PhD, 26 MPhil programmes

Referring to the recent visits to different government as well as private sector universities, the chairperson added that a total of 293 PhD programmes as well as 57 MPhil programmes of 171 universities had been reviewed, adding that 31 PhD and 26 MPhil programmes of various universities had been closed because of the lack of fulfillment of the minimum quality standards.

Ahmed Mukhtar furthermore added that, HEC had stopped further admission in 56 PhD and 10 MPhil programmes in different varsities for the same cause.

"During the review procedure, HEC teams mainly assessed whether or not the universities are complying with the Act on which they are functioning", he said.

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About the opening of university campuses at the district level, he said that the new campuses of several universities had been launched in 29 districts, involving 11 in Balochistan, 5 in KPK, 6 in Sindh and 3 in Gilgit-Baltistan, in the first stage whereas Higher Education Department Punjab, will soon provide the list.

He said almost 90 districts of the country were without any university campus; though the HEC will ensure the students' access to higher education.