APROPOS the letter ‘HEC: research quality’ (June 20). The prime responsibility of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) is to improve the quality of higher education and quality research in a way that is beneficial to the nation and society at large.

In public sector universities of Pakistan, it is mandatory to have a required number of publications for the promotion of faculty in higher grades, as there is no strong mechanism of assessing the quality, impact factor of the research carried out and the novelty of work for that very purpose.

Therefore, there is a need to have a comprehensive and well-defined policy to weigh, scrutinise, clear the research article and set aside the plagiarised work prior to be promoted on international forums or to be published in Pakistani research journals.

Allowing travelling grants and grants can be made conditional, accordingly.

Prof Dr Aneela Atta U Rahman

Larkana

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2019