ISLAMABAD, July 17: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has directed the provincial educational departments to speed up their operations against illegal universities in the private sector, official sources told Dawn.

They said the commission had issued special directives to governors, who were vice-chancellors of the public sector universities in their respective provinces, to step up pressure on education department in this regard.

The HEC, the sources said, was also working on evolving a national-level strategy, having a strict set of punishments, for those who did not abide by the commission’s standards before setting up a degree-awarding institute.

They said the commission had also constituted a steering committee to check the mushroom growth of illegal universities in the private sector.

The committee, comprising provincial education secretaries and representatives of the commission, will hold regular meetings under the chairmanship of HEC executive director Dr M. Akram Shaikh to evolve a strategy in this regard.

Lack of adequate monitoring and evaluation procedures on part of erstwhile University Grants Commission — replaced by the HEC — and provincial educational departments were cited as basic reasons behind the establishment of illegal universities in the private sector, the sources said.

Due to the significant rise in the number of such institutions at the urban centres over the last five years, the commission has decided to strictly enforce its prescribed criteria for setting up a privately-run degree-awarding university.

During the first meeting of the steering committee held on July 14, provincial secretaries were asked to strengthen their monitoring system to stop further proliferation of dubious universities.