ISLAMABAD, Feb 19: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has stressed upon students to take admissions to accredited degree- awarding universities and institutions.

The HEC has appealed to the general public to check the accredited status of a university/institution and the campuses or affiliated colleges of chartered universities before taking admission, an official statement said.

The list of chartered universities/institutions which are 99 in number - 53 in public and 46 in private sectors - has already been published in the press. According to the official statement, many Pakistani Institutions were also marketing degree programmes of foreign universities without any authorization.

It said the commission had decided to review the existing curriculum of information technology being taught at graduate and postgraduate levels in public and private-sector universities.

In this regard a three-day meeting of the HEC's National Curriculum Review Committee (NCRC) of the discipline started on Thursday. Prof Dr Farhana Shah from the computer science department, Quaid-i-Azam University, has been elected convener of the meeting while Dr Naveed Ikram secretary.

The committee will not only review the existing curriculum of information technology but also make recommendations for development of the education of information technology keeping in view the need to equip youth with latest day to day advancements.