ISLAMABAD, Aug 18: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Saturday approved its plagiarism policy providing for dismissal of faculty members in universities found copying the research of others and publishing it with their own name.

The decision was taken at a meeting with HEC chairman Dr Attaur Rahman in the chair.

The policy will be sent to all the universities for implementation through their statutory bodies.

The HEC agreed that those universities who do not follow the governance and quality criteria laid down by the HEC would have their development and recurring projects curtailed.

Moreover, the HEC has acquired software for checking plagiarism and has created a blacklist of plagiarists and posted it on its website.

The commission members were of the view that teachers should be a role model and there should be zero tolerance for those found to be cheating and publishing the work of others as their own.

The recommendations of the selection board regarding the appointment of three distinguished national professors were also approved.

The flexibility offered in eligibility criteria for faculty development in the universities was also approved.

Dr Ata presented the recent programmes of the HEC including the e-books programme.

In a presentation, Dr Sohail H. Naqvi, the HEC executive director, described how the programmes of the commission were resulting in enhancement of high quality research output and improved standards of education.

Particular emphasis is being placed on scholarships to leading universities in technologically advanced countries and some 2,000 scholarships have already been awarded for foreign universities while 1,000 will be awarded during the current financial year, he said.