ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has approved a uniform criteria for affiliation of government and private colleges with public-sector universities and degree- awarding institutions.

A meeting was held on Sunday which was presided over by Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr Attaur Rehman. Some major decisions were taken during the meeting which was aimed at promoting quality of higher education.

The criteria was developed by the Quality Assurance Committee of the Higher Education Commission after extensive consultation with all stakeholders.

The commission also approved the criteria for recognition of journals and constituted a subcommittee for preparing a list of HEC-approved journals. The subcommittee will submit its recommendations very shortly. The HEC appreciated the report of the subcommittee constituted by the HEC chairman to review and evaluate the existing MPhil and PhD programmes of the universities.

The meeting decided that the HEC should initiate a programme for approval of departments of universities/institutes where PhD studies could be offered according to the set criteria to bring our PhD studies on the par with world-class degrees.

The commission members who attended the meeting included Dr M. Akram Sheikh, deputy chairman, Planning Commission; Shehryar Khan, acting secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology; Lt- Gen (retired) Mohammad Akram Khan, vice-chancellor UET, Lahore; Prof Dr Qasim Jan, QAU vice-chancellor; Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, rector, Lahore School of Economics; Nazir Saeed, special secretary, Higher Education, Punjab government; Dr Anwar Nasim, adviser science, Comstech, Islamabad; Prof Abdul Matin, former vice-chancellor, Peshawar university; Prof Dr Saadia Chishti, ex- member, Council of Islamic Ideology, Pakistan; Nadira Panjwani, chairperson, Panjwani Foundation and Trusts, Karachi; Shahzad Alam, chief executive of United Electronics, Lahore and Dr Sohail H. Naqvi, Higher Education Commission executive director.