ISLAMABAD: Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar on Wednesday said the commission was working on establishing new accreditation councils in disciplines including Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Biological Sciences, Languages and Psychology.

Addressing a press conference at the HEC Secretariat, he shared the commission’s performance over the past 100 days, stating that significant reforms had been undertaken in governance, transparency, digitalisation, research, international collaboration and academic quality enhancement.

He said, “Although there is still room for further improvement, it is evident that a strong foundation has been laid to move the higher education sector in the right direction.”

He added that strengthening governance had remained the foremost priority, and his recent visits to universities had provided direct insights into institutional challenges, governance models, student needs and regional educational strengths.

Referring to digital transformation, the chairman said the launch of online degree attestation services was a major public facilitation reform that would reduce travel, delays and inconvenience for students and graduates.

Dr Akhtar said the HEC had established task forces on key academic matters, including one to recommend ways to improve the global ranking of Pakistani universities.

He noted that in 2026, 18 Pakistani universities had appeared in QS rankings and 48 in Times Higher Education rankings, compared to six and two respectively in 2016, describing it as a significant improvement.

He also highlighted efforts to strengthen National Centres of Excellence and said the commission had established National Chairs in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, automation, data science, cyber security and cloud computing.

According to him, these national chairs, comprising experts from 10 to 12 institutions with a lead university, would serve as platforms for policy direction, strategic alignment and assessment of Pakistan’s academic ecosystem.

Responding to a question, he said a policy on dual, double and joint degree programmes had been introduced to promote collaboration between local and international universities.

He further said third-party testing for admissions into MS, MPhil and PhD programmes had been made mandatory through HEC’s Education Testing Council to ensure transparency and merit-based admissions.

The chairman said the HEC had recently conducted a nationwide National Skill Competency Test (NSCT) for IT graduates to assess the quality of university outputs. He said 33,000 students from 199 universities appeared in the test across 162 centres in 116 cities.

Sharing progress on pending degree verification cases, Dr Akhtar said around 56,000 cases and 126 PhD-related cases had been resolved in recent months.

He added that the Talent Hunt Programme had been revived to support outstanding students from O-Level, A-Level and FSc backgrounds and enable them to represent Pakistan in international science Olympiads.

He said universities and affiliated colleges had been directed to ensure strict compliance with HEC standards and accreditation policies, adding that no academic programme could be launched in an affiliated college unless it already existed at the main campus.

Dr Akhtar said centres of excellence in emerging technologies were being further strengthened to align with global trends and national priorities.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2026