The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has decided to re-examine the academic credentials of 36,931 students enrolled at unauthorised campuses, rejecting its Academics Committee’s recommendations and opting instead for a fresh verification through an independent body.
According to the decisions taken in the HEC’s 46th meeting, which was chaired by its Chairman Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar, an independent committee comprising experts from outside the HEC would be constituted to reverify the records of students of the educational institutions whose academic records were found complete.
The HEC will provide only secretariat support to the independent committee. Some members of the commission, however, recorded their dissenting notes over the HEC’s decision. The meeting discussed a wide range of issues relating to higher education institutions, unauthorised campuses, degree attestation, AI, international academic collaboration and higher education governance.
The HEC also reviewed cases of the graduates whose degrees had been attested by the commission but whose verification status was later suspended after revelations that they had studied at unauthorised campuses.
The meeting decided that these cases would also be re-examined by the independent committee, and further action would be taken in the light of their findings. The HEC also approved sweeping changes in the degree attestation and equivalence mechanism, deciding to replace the conventional physical attestation system with a fully digital, evidence-based verification regime. It also abolished the requirement of submitting prior or subsequent academic qualifications for degree attestation.
The meeting also deliberated upon the proposed framework on the use of generative AI tools in higher education institutions. However, the draft framework was referred back to the experts’ committee for further review and incorporation of feedback from HEC members before being presented again in the next meeting.
The meeting also approved new guidelines for engaging visiting faculty members, and amendments to the Transnational Education Policy. The HEC also approved the proposed policy on dual, double & joint degree programmes aimed at promoting international academic collaboration.
The policy framework provides guidelines for collaborative degree arrangements, including credit transfer, academic standards, institutional partnerships and implementation mechanisms. The HEC directed that any additional input from Dr Syed Sohail H Naqvi be incorporated within two weeks.
The meeting also approved resuming the Pearson UK Higher National Diploma programmes in Pakistan, subject to strict compliance with the commission’s regulatory framework, admission criteria and quality assurance requirements.
The HEC also allowed the attestation of degrees of 56 students enrolled by the Malir University of Science & Technology before the issuance of the HEC’s NOC in 2018, citing protection of students’ academic interests.
The meeting also approved establishing the Consortium of Emerging Engineering & Technology Universities (P-5), with directions to ensure representation from Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The consortium is aimed at promoting research collaboration, resource sharing and academic coordination among emerging engineering universities.
The HEC also approved extending the National Academy of Higher Education training programmes to private universities and self-funded faculty members on a cost-sharing basis. It also directed initiating the process to register the Education Testing Council as a not-for-profit company under the Companies Act 2017, and allowed resuming recruitment against contractual posts.
The commission also approved the HEC Employees Medical Treatment Policy 2025, and ratified several decisions relating to promotions, appointments and recommendations of selection boards.
The HEC also relaxed the scholarship recovery conditions under the Cambridge Trust arrangement, deciding that scholarship funds would not be recovered from scholars unable to complete their programmes, so that academic collaboration with the University of Cambridge can be sustained.
The commission also decided that HEC-funded scholars in the US on J-1 visas may be issued an NOC for waiver requests, provided that they have refunded scholarship expenditures, along with the prescribed penalty. The final decision, however, would rest with the US authorities.
The issue of a unified salary package for vice chancellors of public universities was also raised. Federal Education Secretary Nadeem Mahbub assured the HEC that the matter would be pursued further with the finance ministry.
