Fudging data

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) launched the quality assurance division in 2005 to ensure that all universities and colleges are delivering quality education. Under this process, the HEC allows higher education institutions (HEIs) to initiate their programmes through no objection certificates (NOCs), and later it analyzes whether these HEIs are maintaining the same standards as committed by them. The HEC sends its experts to visit universities and evaluate their teaching mechanisms. However, like every programme, this initiative has certain limitations. It is not entirely possible for the HEC to evaluate the performance of universities and their students. Some universities fudge data to turn it in their favour. All of this severely impacts the future of students.

HEIs must realize that such initiatives are for improving education across the country, and they need to play their role in it. They should provide reliable, timely and updated data to the HEC so that quality standards could be improved in the national interest.

Imtiaz Ali Lakhan

Islamabad