ISLAMABAD, March 14: The Quality Assurance Committee of the Higher Education Commission has approved a set of guidelines to enhance the quality of PhD programme in the country, said an official statement on Monday.

The committee, in a meeting presided over by HEC Chairman Dr Attaur Rehman, decided that in future a minimum of three-member supervisory committee would be formed to guide a PhD student.

A student would be required to take 30 credit hours of study with minimum of 24 hours of course work before becoming eligible for admission to a PhD programme.

The student will also need to take locally-designed Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and, when required, the international GRE as a requirement to join the programme. It was also decided that for admission to PhD, a minimum Combined Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 3.0 or first division will be required. For PhD studies there will be a course work of 18 credit hours followed by a comprehensive examination.

Students who will remain unsuccessful in entering the PhD programme may be offered an MPhil/MSc/equivalent as a terminal degree. For students already admitted to a PhD programme, minimum one paper accepted/published in any of the HEC-approved journals will be required. The PhD thesis evaluation by two foreign experts from technologically advanced countries will be required.

However, the case of thesis in certain disciplines like Persian/Arabic, etc., in which the condition of technologically advanced countries is not applicable will be decided by the universities in consultation with the HEC.