ISLAMABAD: In order to facilitate graduate students, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has launched an online facility for provision of equivalence.

“The HEC has launched online facility for equivalence of degrees awarded by Pakistani universities and degree awarding institutions to facilitate graduates,” as per a statement issued by HEC.

It said that this project is a completely paperless system and applicants will no longer be required to visit HEC offices or send their documents to HEC for equivalence of their qualifications.

“They can apply from their homes by creating online profile at ‘eservices.hec.gov.pk’ and upload HEC attested educational documents from Bachelor’s onwards along with paid fee challan,” the statement said, adding applications will be processed through an online system and applicants will be issued system-generated equivalence letters through email. The new equivalence portal, the statement said, is a robust and hassle-free system, embedded with security features. It added that applicants will be informed about the status of their applications at every stage through system-generated emails.

Speaking to Dawn, an officer of HEC said through this system, students could get online equivalence of their degrees in four days, if they are able to upload all required documents.

He said students had been complaining about the long process of obtaining equivalence, adding, in order to get admissions in foreign universities or applying jobs, applicants are required to inform the university or employer about exact years of their education. “Now, within a few days, graduates while sitting in their homes will get equivalence certificates,” he said.

For example, the Pakistani MBA degree is a three and half year degree and HEC considers it equivalent to an MPhil degree. Whereas, he said that an LLM degree and MSc engineering is also considered equivalent to an MPhil.

“So every month, a large number of students apply for equivalence of their degrees and there are complaints of a lengthy conventional process. So, now through this system Pakistani graduates from Pakistan and abroad can easily apply for equivalence to get system generated equivalence certificates against their degrees,” he said and added that this project is completely paper-less and besides facilitating students, it is also good environmentally.

It is relevant to note HEC besides attesting degrees awarded by recognised foreign and Pakistani universities also gives equivalence to students of religious seminaries against their religious education. However, the HEC officer said in the next phase, a portal will be developed for them too to get system generated equivalence certificate.

The HEC is the governing body of all public, private universities and other degree awarding institutions. It is the sole organisation with the mandate of attesting degrees of university students.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2021