185 non-accredited universities,institutions on HEC’s radar

ISLAMABAD: A week after the Axact scandal of issuing fake degrees jolted Pakistan, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has decided to examine the functioning of 185 non-accredited universities and institutions of higher learning which are operating for last many years across Pakistan.
Interestingly, the non-recognised institutions and campuses have outnumbered the recognised universities, as currently there are only 168 legal higher education institutions functioning in Pakistan.
“In the wake of the recent scandal, we have called the vice chancellors of public sector universities to discuss the issue of their non-recognised campuses in other some cities,” HEC chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmad told The News.
He said these non-recognised campuses have failed to fulfill HEC requirements for affiliation and the Commission wants to resolve the issue so that the future of the students could be saved.
When his attention was drawn towards the list of 185 non-recognised institutions he acknowledged that some of the universities mentioned in the list are illegal, as they have no permission from the government or HEC to operate in any part of the country.
“I will examine such institutions and see what action HEC can take against them,” he said.Some of the universities mentioned in the list have their websites functioning and some are even awarding degrees but those degrees are useless for the students.
When asked why the custodian of higher education did nothing so far to stop operation of such universities, which are minting millions by coning the students, he said HEC, on its own, could not take any action against such institutes.
“We can’t make direct intervention, but we can write to federal and provincial governments in advisory capacity for action against such universities,” he said. “Education is a multi-billion rupees industry and very powerful people are doing this business, the best we can do is to deny them our accreditation,” said executive director of HEC Mansoor Akbar Kundi when contacted by The News.
He said HEC does not have powers of police. We create awareness through publication of list of non-recognised institutes and we don’t verify degrees of these universities,” he said.The chairman of newly formed Punjab Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin said he would soon hold a meeting of the commission to discuss the issue of non-recognised universities and campuses.
“The provincial commission has just started functioning, we will conduct thorough research on the subject of non-recognised universities before taking any action against them,” he said.