COMSATS-Lancaster row with HEC goes on

LONDON: Lancaster University has accepted that it should have carried out its own due diligence before entering into a joint-degree deal with the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT).
Both educational institutions have been at the centre of a huge controversy as students have protested that the promises made have not been fulfilled and they have been unable to get dual degrees from both the Comsats and the Lancaster University.
In the fall of 2010, Lancaster University had claimed to be the first university in the UK to set up a degree programme shared with Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) in Lahore, promising courses for students in business administration, computer science and electrical engineering. It was stated that as a result of this collaboration students in Pakistan will be able to gain international qualifications without the cost of studying in the UK. The deal pledged that after four years’ study at the Lahore campus of CIIT, students will be awarded with degrees from both Lancaster University and CIIT but the HEC says that the Comsats failed to abide by the rules and wanted to bulldoze the established rules and continued to charge heavy fees without doing anything to meet the criteria set by the HEC.
A spokesman of the Lancaster University told The News that it was informed in September 2014 that the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) would not permit the award of a dual degree.
The spokesman added: “Lancaster and Comsats have been working to provide the best possible deal for students – students have been receiving the Lancaster degree and a joint transcript. Lancaster has been working towards accreditation of the Engineering and computing degrees with the IET and BCS, respectively. This could not have been done until the first cohort of students graduated and this process is well underway.”
The HEC said that it was prime obligation of CIIT to obtain approval on the MoU with the Lancaster University from the Higher Education Commission and its respective governing bodies by January 01, 2011 otherwise this MoU shall stand null and void. It says that the CIIT never took NOC from HEC, Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) and its Board of Governors (BoG) hence the said MoU stood null and void after January 01, 2011.
It says that the CIIT held convocation and provided LU-UK degrees to students without getting its accreditation from both councils and the matter became sub-judice in various courts of law and ombudsman.
There are currently over 2,500 enrolled students in the Comsats Lahore campus in various undergraduate programmes and all these students got admission in the hope that they will get dual degrees. In 2014, the university issued them with LU degrees rather than dual degrees claiming that the HEC did not let them award dual degrees as no relevant law existed to allow for it.
The issue has led to protests by students who have alleged that the CIIT made millions in fees but didn’t do anything to address the problem.