Sindh comes out against HEC, says two-year degree progammes to continue in province

The Sindh government has come out against the Higher Education Commission (HEC)'s decision to abolish the two-year Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes, saying that it would continue in the province.

Terming the HEC's move an "attack" on provincial sovereignty, Adviser to Chief Minister on Universities and Boards Nisar Khuhro on Wednesday announced that all of the two-year degree programmes would continue in Sindh.

"All the universities of Sindh will continue the two-year degree programmes via the provincial autonomy under the universities act," Khuhro said.

The adviser said that at times the federal government robs the right of the students through the Pakistan Medical Commission and sometimes it attacks the provincial autonomy through its tactics.

The adviser said the HEC's recent measures, including the associate degree programme and PhD policy, would deprive the middle and lower-middle-class of higher education on a large scale.

Last year, HEC had issued directives to all educational institutions to stop the two-year bachelor's degree programmes as it will not recognise any such programmes undertaken after the academic year 2018.

In this regard, the commission had written a letter to all public and private sector degree awarding institutions directing them to immediately stop such programmes as HEC has decided to phase-out the two-year degree BA/BSc programme.