HEC reviewing graduate programme as new system not helping private master’s candidates

Understanding the difficulty being faced by thousands of candidates awaiting examinations of private masters programme in arts and commerce, the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) has launched a review of the graduate programme in order to provide working-class candidates with an alternative system for private masters degree.

Thousands of students around the country have been awaiting the MA exams for the past two years, but the universities are not prepared to hold them. During the last HEC tenure, these examinations were eliminated, and BCom, BA and BSc programmes were discontinued, whereas, an associate degree programme (ADP) was introduced in universities and degree colleges as well as for private students. However, no replacement programme for the master of arts (MA) was introduced.

Thousands of BA and BCom students at the University of Karachi (KU) and other universities across the country used to pursue MA and MCom as private candidates in order to bolster their educational qualifications, find employment and seek salary raises on the basis of qualification. However, for regular students, a four-year BS programme was launched in place of MA and MSc while totally neglecting private candidates of the masters level.

Thousands of private students across the country are impatiently awaiting MA exams, but their future seems bleak due to unthoughtful decision-making at the highest level. The controller of examinations at the KU, Dr Zafar told the scribe that every month thousands of students inquired about the date of their MA private examinations, but the university was unable to provide them with this information. According to him, universities and certain degree colleges have begun offering a four-year bachelor of science degree that is equivalent to a master of arts for ordinary students; nevertheless, there is neither infrastructure nor necessary number of teachers to support such a degree programme. The future of ADP is also uncertain.

Besides, the enrolment in ADP has dropped because students are anxious about their future and unable to decide the course of their studies. The KU official claimed private applicants were also being awarded associate degrees comparable to BAs and BComs, but there was no private exam at the masters level. According to him, the number of people seeking admission to BCom private and BA private programmes had dropped by more than half since the introduction of ADP.

Talking to Jang, HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed lamented that the previous administration abruptly terminated BCom, BA and BSc programmes and hastily created ADP while neglecting private masters degree, which had been creating problems.

He added that the HEC had taken notice of these problems, changed the undergraduate curriculum and started a review of the graduate programme so that the working-class people could get a private masters degree through a different system.