KARACHI: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is directed to check the mushroom growth of institutions of higher learning and take action against the universities and their affiliated institutes that lack quality facilities.

The directives were given by the senior adviser of the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat, Syed Anwar Hyder, during a recent visit to the regional centre of the HEC in the metropolis.

According to a press release, he urged the HEC to play more effective role to uplift standard of universities so that Pakistani students could avail education and employment opportunities around the world without facing difficulties.

He said that there were several complaints that some private sector universities had opened campuses without getting HEC approval and fulfilling quality standards that resulted into difficulties and complications for over 10,000 students, who had moved courts in the regard.

He said that the ombudsman secretariat had also received several complaints against universities and it was looking into these complaints and appropriate actions would be taken to provide relief to the complainants.

Mr Hyder appreciated the role of HEC in providing verification, attestation and other important facilities and services to a wide range of students from undergraduate to post-doctoral level.

He stressed the need of establishment of statuary institutions to regulate primary and secondary level education in the country so that entire educational system from basic to higher level could be uplifted and standardised at par with developed nations of the world.

“Developed and emerging nations around the globe allocate funds amounting to five to six per cent of their GDP for education and Pakistan should also increase its budgetary allocation for education to ensure provision of sufficient resources to education sector,” he observed.

He said that the federal ombudsman secretariat had offices in all the major cities of the country and its Karachi office alone received and disposed of over 15,000 complaints each year.

Javed Ali Memon, the director of HEC’s regional centre Karachi, said that the HEC was working with a vision of raising standards of higher education in Pakistan and certain measures were taken in this regard including Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN), online Learning Management System and digitisation of data.

He said that HEC was providing grants and funds to universities for promotion of higher education and research besides setting quality standards and provision of state-of-the-art facilities and guidance to universities as well as to students.

The commission was focused on adoption of 21st century requirements by universities to elevate them to world standards, he said and added that Pakistani universities were performing well that was demonstrated by improvement of their world rankings.

Although the government was providing funds, universities needed to generate their own resources to attain self sustainability, he said, adding that the HEC provided Rs30 million to each university during Covid-19 situation.

Later, the senior adviser visited the data centre, IT lab, attestation centre and other facilities at HEC regional centre. He also met students and parents present at the centre and inquired about facilities and issues.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2022