HEC vows to continue MNA degree verification

ISLAMABAD. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) said on Wednesday that it would continue to verify degrees of parliamentarians and that it has not been asked to halt the process. "The process of degree verification of MPs has never been stopped; we will not come under pressure," HEC chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said in a press conference in the capital. He said HEC is going to launch a web-based TV, radio and call centre to give access to all citizens to get required information about HEC and its activities. The HEC boss informed the media that four credit hour courses are being added in university curricula in various disciplines at the degree level, comprising ethics, social responsibility and social entrepreneurship. He said regional countries have gone far ahead in higher education compared to Pakistan. "Out of 29,000 university teachers in Pakistan, only 7,000 are PhDs," Mukhtar said. "From next year, a split three-year PhD programme is being launched where the last year can be spent at any foreign university," the HEC chief said. On the Lahore High Court decision against the National Testing Service (NTS), the HEC chief said it would be honoured, however universities have been directed to evolve their own mechanism for entry into higher research level education. Ahmed said that in the current federal budget, Rs43 billion has been allocated for HEC's recurring grant and Rs20 billion for the development grant, adding that this was the highest budget allocated in the history of HEC. "Over 7,500 overseas scholarships have been offered for MS and PhD studies till date, of which 3,300 students have completed their studies," he said. In response to a question, he said that efforts are being made to improve and strengthen the process of online verification of documents and also shared HEC’s initiative to provide an attestation facility in all the provincial capitals. He informed the media that HEC and the British Council Pakistan have recently signed a Letter of Intent to further strengthen existing cooperation between the two organisations in the field of higher education and research. He also mentioned a recent agreement reached between HEC and PTCL for provisioning of free EVO devices, under the prime minister’s 'laptop scheme'. “Our universities have responded passionately to all the initiatives taken by HEC for research and development and many projects have made their presence felt,” Dr Mukhtar said.