LAHORE: The Punjab Higher Education Department (HED) has changed the nomenclature of all the colleges in the province, introducing three categories -- community, graduate and postgraduate colleges.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has directed the colleges and universities in the province to offer Associate Degree Programmes (ADP) in place of the two-year BA/BSc programmes to the post-higher secondary students.

“A recent meeting of the Education Reforms Committee decided to end different nomenclatures, including post graduate, college of commerce, degree college, institute of commerce and college of home economics in the province, replacing these titles with community, graduate and postgraduate colleges,” said a senior HED official.

He said at least two graduate colleges would be established at district level to offer four-year bachelor programmes and the remaining would be declared community colleges to run ADP.

Abolishes old nomenclature

The official said the department would gradually upgrade all community colleges to graduate colleges. “The department was also working on colleges to offer post-graduate classes, including MS programmes as some of the colleges had the capacity to fulfill the Higher Education Commission criteria for such programmes,” he said.

He said at present there were around 73 colleges in the province which were offering four-year bachelor degree programmes and the number would reach 100 in the next academic year.

He said the work was underway on a 10-year upgrade plan for the colleges and soon 150 market oriented subjects would be offered in the community colleges to meet the market needs.

“The students enrolling for the ADP will also be given practical knowledge of their subjects and the department would provide them internship opportunities and later permanent jobs,” he said.

He said the department was also working to develop a uniform educational calendar and syllabus for colleges and universities in the province.

He said the Punjab HEC and the higher education department were jointly working on colleges upgrade.

He said the department was also working to allocate budget for content development of the subjects being offered in the community colleges.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2019