ISLAMABAD, June 21: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has warned that it will close down Islamabad campuses of private universities if they do not meet the criteria for obtaining degree-awarding status, official sources told Dawn.
In this regard, they said the HEC had issued a directive to the administration of private universities in the capital that claim to have achieved degree-awarding status from the commission.
In the directive, the sources said the commission had categorically made it clear to the parties concerned that if they did not fulfil the pre-requisites set by the HEC their campuses would be closed.
It may be added here that the HEC has issued a similar directive to the provincial governments asking them to monitor pseudo universities. They said none of the privately-managed universities present in the federal capital had been given degree-awarding status by the commission.
The education ministry had recently given five years to such universities to meet the requirement, i.e. a fully equipped campus and faculty. However, the sources said, the HEC was of the view that this deadline was too long because by that time managers of these universities would have earned huge profits. Therefore, the HEC has been entrusted with the monitoring role.
“It will take some time to have a strict check on the mushrooming of so-called degree-awarding institutions as in the past, governments, both at federal and provincial level, remained ignorant of the setting up of such dubious institutions, a senior official told Dawn.
At present 44 universities and institutions were operating in the private sector which had been recognized by the HEC.
Most of these recognized universities have opened their branches all around the country without meeting the requirements, hence the HEC has asked them to fulfil the criteria or close their campuses.
The HEC is also well aware of the fact that the country lacks adequate regulatory mechanism for monitoring such educational institutions and with the constitution of the commission, things will be taken care of, they said.
For the information of the people, the sources said the HEC had been advertising names of those institutions that could issue degrees in private and public sectors so that students could be prevented from wasting their time and money.