ISLAMABAD, Sept 9: The Higher Education Commission has asked public as well as private sector universities to strictly follow its minimum criterion for PhD programmes, otherwise, their degrees will not be recognized, an official statement said. The commission is examining the PhD programmes of all universities to determine which institutions are following the minimum criteria laid down by it for MPhil and PhD programmes, it said.

The HEC chairman, Dr Attaur Rehman, in a letter addressed to the vice-chancellors of the universities not following the criterion, has expressed concern in this regard.

The chairman warned the university administrations that if the HEC’s criterion regarding PhD programmes was not implemented, their degrees would not be accepted.

Dr Ata also urged all the VCs to have an emergency meeting of Board of Advanced Studies and Research and other academic bodies to immediately resolve the issue.

The HEC is in the process of preparing a list of such universities whose PhD degree will not be recognized by it. The commission teams are inspecting university departments in this regard. The list will be publicized through national papers in November.