HEC relaxes degree attestation rules

Islamabad: The regulator for higher education in the country, HEC, has relaxed rules for attestation of degrees.

A notification issued by HEC director general (accreditation and attestation) Tahir Abbas Zaidi said the competent authority had decided that every degree would be attested solely on its merits i.e. whether it had been issued by a recognised educational institution or the educational institution had the legal authority to issue that degree.

"Applicants for degree attestation will no longer be required to submit information about previous or subsequent academic qualifications," it said. The notification further said all degrees from the HEC-recognised educational institutions in subjects where they were authorised to offer the relevant programmes will be verified, attested and equated."

It however said the degrees from unrecognised educational institutions or from unrecognised and unauthorised campuses or colleges and/or in unauthorised subjects wouldn't be verified, attested or equated.

The notification said all other codal formalities were to be adhered to as per the prevailing SOPs (standard operating procedures) for processing the attestation or equivalence cases.