HEC; Promulgation of strictest affiliation policy for colleges

Karachi: The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan has issued a new and strictest affiliation policy for public and private colleges affiliated to public universities across the country.

Under the new policy, no university or degree awarding institution can grant affiliation to colleges without an NOC issued by HEC, while the validity of this NOC has been extended to three years.

Already affiliated colleges have been subjected to HEC review/review (Review Desk) for continuation of their affiliation, all universities have been mandated to provide required information of their affiliated colleges. Enter on the respective portal of EC.

If a college does not meet the criteria laid down in the new policy, the certificate issued to its student will not be validated by HEC and disciplinary action will be taken by HEC against the concerned university.

The notification containing the above points has been issued under the signature of HEC Executive Director Zia Al Qayyum.

On the other hand, an education officer of Sindh government said that this policy is such that now we should close government colleges and make students sit at home, HEC is not ready to talk to us and listen to our problems and problems, all policies are on. Lines are prepared and circulated on the basis of review and implemented by the universities keeping in view the ground realities, if the universities do not implement it, it is said that they will not verify the credentials of the students.

It should be noted that through a notification issued by the HEC last year on February 23, 2023, all public sector universities had banned new affiliations and after about 10 months, this new and stricter policy was issued. has been done

As per the notification issued, an online portal (https://edustats.hec.gov.pk/) has been developed for ensuring implementation of HEC Affiliation Policy 2024.

All the universities will feed the required information data of their affiliated colleges on this portal after which the review desk of HEC will review the information and after review of this data and recommendation of the review desk, the universities will issue new and new colleges. Affiliation will continue and old colleges will be informed about continuation of affiliation.
The notification further states that since HEC will not conduct on-site visit and inspection of affiliated colleges/institutions, it is the responsibility of the universities to ensure affiliation as per HEC policy.

The notification warns the universities that non-compliance of the same policy and sub-standard affiliation may result in strict disciplinary action by the Commission against the Accrediting Institutions (Universities) including ban on affiliation to colleges. is also included.

If students are admitted in violation of HEC policies, the Commission will not recognize/validate the degrees/documents of such students and all responsibilities in this regard shall lie on the degree awarding institutions (universities). will

In addition, the current draft policy in this regard states that no university can grant affiliation to any new program to the colleges until the relevant program itself has been run for 5 years in that university. HEC has now included the representation of federal and provincial HECs in the affiliation committee of universities.

The vice chancellor of a government university of Sindh while talking to “Express” said that we had explained to HEC that the policy related to affiliation of public sector universities is included in their act and in this policy draft. There is a lot that conflicts with the universities’ own act, so it will be very difficult to follow through.