ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission has asked public as well as private
sector universities to strictly follow its minimum criterion for PhD programmes,
otherwise, their degrees will not be recognized, an official statement said. The
commission is examining the PhD programmes of all universities to determine which
institutions are following the minimum criteria laid down by it for MPhil and
PhD programmes, it said.
The HEC chairman, Dr Attaur Rehman, in a letter addressed to the vice-chancellors
of the universities not following the criterion, has expressed concern in this
regard.
The chairman warned the university administrations that if the HEC’s criterion
regarding PhD programmes was not implemented, their degrees would not be accepted.
Dr Ata also urged all the VCs to have an emergency meeting of Board of Advanced
Studies and Research and other academic bodies to immediately resolve the issue.
The HEC is in the process of preparing a list of such universities whose PhD degree
will not be recognized by it. The commission teams are inspecting university departments
in this regard. The list will be publicized through national papers in November.