March 2, 2006	Thursday	Safar 1, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, March 1: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has approved a report submitted by the committee for evaluation of Ph.D/M.Phil programmes of all the universities and degree-awarding institutions.

The committee was constituted by the commission chairman, Dr Attaur Rehman.

According to a press release, the universities have been asked to strictly implement the recommendations made by the committee.

The five-member committee is headed by Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood Khan, Vice Chancellor University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi. Prof Khalid Aftab, Vice-Chancellor Government College University, Lahore; Prof Dr Abdullah Sadiq, Rector GIK, Topi; Prof Dr M. Azam, Dean Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and Prof Dr Riaz H. Qureshi, Adviser Quality Assurance and Learning Innovations are the committee members.

The committee has submitted reports for 10 universities, while visits to the other major universities are being undertaken.

The recommendations communicated to these universities include that the Federal Urdu University has been informed that no student should be allowed to pursue/enrol for PhD degree programme at the Islamabad and Karachi Campuses, while the HEC will facilitate the placement of students already enrolled in PhD by the Urdu University in other universities of the country.

Hazara University, Mansehra, University of Education, Lahore, Government College University, Faisalabad, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, and the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad have been asked to stop further admissions in any of the PhD programmes unless the commission is satisfied that all observations of the committee are taken care of in each of the respective departments.

It was however, clarified that this decision will not affect the students already admitted in PhD by these five universities.

The recommendations of the committee with respect to Karachi University, Karachi, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore were of technical nature.