LAHORE
Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed has said that the decision to abolish two-year bachelor's and master's programmes (BA/BSc and MA/MSc) is not new and is aimed at bringing higher education at a par with internationally accepted and recognised models.
Talking to reporters at HEC regional office here on Saturday, Dr Mukhtar said the decision to abolish 2-year BA/BSc and MA/MSc programmes, in a phased manner, was unanimously taken by the Commission, having representation of all the provinces and federating units, few years back. The recent notification to degree awarding institutions was ‘not a surprising direction’ but rather a reminder that 2018 and 2020 were the respective deadlines, he added.
Dr Mukhtar said graduation and master's degrees should not be considered mere pieces of paper. “This is a common practice that individuals send admissions few days before exams without properly studying the subject”, he said and questioned “As to how such a degree could be of any worth in the job market?” He added the decision was in line with international standards and practices and in the best interest of the country and its youth. “The four year degree programme will have an exit option, awarding associate degrees to those who wish to discontinue for any reason,” he said and added “They would always be able to continue onward to complete the 4-year BS programmes.”
The HEC chief further said there should be no compromise on the quality aspect and added quality bar should be raised after every two year. “With generous funding and support from the federal government we are ready to help and support every university in Pakistan to introduce 4-years BS programmes,” he added.
Dr Mukhtar said that there were thousands of individuals in the country who held 3 to 4 master's degrees but they failed to find jobs as their education did not match the market demand. “We are also planning to offer free-of-cost short courses to such individuals to equip them with necessary skills.” He said there were over 3,700 affiliated colleges across the country and the HEC was determined to launching 4-years BS programmes at as many as possible colleges with the support of our universities. To a question Dr Mukhtar said there 41,000-plus faculty members at all the public and private universities of the country and hardly 11,000 of them had PhD degrees while only 9 percent people had access to higher education in Pakistan. He added this was one of the reasons behind absence of Pakistani universities in international rankings. “We need to focus quality of higher education and ensure maximum people have access to the same,” he said and urged the academia to do research which directly benefited the common man and the country.
