LAHORE: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has stopped admissions to MPhil and PhD through distance learning programmes in 13 universities for their failure to meet quality standards set by the commission after conducting visits of the campuses.

These universities lacked adequate teachers to run the programmes.

HEC Quality Assurance Division Consultant Muhammad Ismail sent a letter to the varsities directing them to stop distance education programmes till finalisation of recommendations by an HEC committee.

It states “In some cases, [the] universities have not even got [sic] approval of their own statutory bodies. Some of the varsities are also found violating rules and taking advantage of weak HEC policies about distance learning”.

One of the complaints was that the universities failed to integrate information and communications technology in their coursework; another, that a lack of transparency was evident from the marking of attendance of students.

The commission directed the universities to shift the students enrolled in the affected programmes to other disciplines in order to prevent any losses to their studies.

The HEC also directed the existing professional programmes in progress, the universities must initiate the process for their accreditation by the relevant councils. No diploma or certificate be offered under distance education arrangements.

The varsities facing admission ban include the International Islamic University of Islamabad, the Virtual Campus of Comsats Institute of Information Technology of Islamabad, the University of Peshawar, the Gomal University of Dera Ismail Khan, the Government College University of Faisalabad, the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, the University of Faisalabad, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, the Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, the Sukkur IBA University, the Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur, the University of Sindh Jamshoro and University of Balochistan Quetta.

Also, the Virtual University of Lahore was continuing to carry out 11 MS and MPhil programmes without acquiring a no objection certificate (NOC) from the HEC.

The VU administration had started giving admissions to different MS and MPhil programmes students last year. Around 4,500 students were registered in different programmes.

According to the HEC policy, a degree programme without the NOC would not be recognised by the commission.

The policy was set in place by the HEC for programmes that had been started after November 7, 2013.

The HEC website also has a list of approved programmes for the convenience of students and mentioned all the MS, MPhil and PhD programmes approved by the commission. According to the list available on the HEC website, 541 programmes have been listed. However, VU does not have a single MS, MPhil programme recognized by the HEC.

HEC spokesperson Ayesha Ikram confirmed that the VU had applied for the NOC for the programmes and the HEC had given opportunity to all institutions to get all pending issues rectified.

VU spokesperson Qamar Riaz said that VU had offered all programmes according to the varsity’s mandate.

He said that the VU had already applied for the NOC and they were allowed to continue the programmes in the fall admissions.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2018