IBCC certificates mandatory for university admissions

Lahore: According to the media sources, the aspirants passing O and A levels will now be required to get equivalence certificates issued by the Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) for getting admission in any university in the country.

As per the letter issued by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to all government and private sector universities, all the aspirants completing O levels in a foreign country and A levels in Pakistan will now require an equivalence certificate from Inter Board Committee of Chairmen.

The letter issued by the commission stated that the decision was taken by the National Quality Assurance Committee (NQAC) during its 22nd meeting.

The letter also defined the required criteria for A and O level aspirants who had already got their certification.

The letter state:

“The Controller examinations VC’s of universities from which persons mentioned graduated before December 31, 2016 (the cut-off date), shall provide an affirmation along with the degree supplement form that in order to fulfill the requirements of admissions they implemented their own strategies to determine the equivalence of O&A levels and the equivalent foreign qualifications, rather than obtaining the IBCC equivalence certificates. Though, in future, they shall require the Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) equivalent certificates for the O and A levels and equivalent foreign qualifications to meet the admission requirements.”

The letter further stated:

“For degrees of programmes covered by the authorized councils, the commission may exempted the requirement of equivalence certificates for those graduates and attest their degree without executing the condition of registration by the authorized councils.”

Highlighting the conditions for the presently registered students, it stated: “(those) students in the universities along with O and A level and equivalent qualification who have not studied Urdu, Pakistan Studies and Islamiat should take and clear the incomplete courses from their own varsity, Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) or from any recognized national Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education.”

The letter also notified that no aspirant will be granted admission without studying Urdu, Pakistan Studies as well as Islamiat.

“In future, no admission would be granted to aspirants by the universities who studied O level from abroad and A level from Pakistan but not studied the subjects i-e Urdu, Pakistan Studies and Islamiat.”

A special condition was also added for the aspirants of agriculture.

“Higher Education commission might attest Bachelors and higher level degrees of graduates having F.Sc. (pre-agriculture) who gained admission in Bachelors programmes till December 31, 2016 provided all other requirements are fulfilled.”

The representative of the commission responded through an email that the HEC had not suggested any change in the IBCC strategy and it was already providing equivalence certificates for those students who met particular criteria.

“Students who have graduated before December 31, 2016 (the cut-off date), the condition of getting the IBCC equivalence certificate for degree attestation reason has been relaxed. However after the cut-off date, the varsities or DAIs institutes are advised to ask for IBCC equivalence certificates for O and A level as well as other equivalent degrees at the time of admission,” said email.

As per the representative of HEC, “The decision about the aspirants who have already completed their degrees before December 31, 2016 aims at facilitating those aspirants to get their degrees attested by HEC, if all other requirements are met, as at the time of their admission the institutes did not require them to provide the IBCC equivalence certificate.”

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