The urgently called meeting, though, gave approval to the bills that have already been passed by the National Assembly and the Cabinet Division but also directed HEC Executive Director Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmad to start the process of scrutiny to make sure that the universities uphold the set quality standards and accreditation of HEC. The bills will be laid before the upper house for debate on Monday. Chairman Senate had forwarded the bills to the committee to pass them within two days.
Chairman of Senate Committee on Education and Training Abdul Nabi Bangash said the country needs more higher education institutes as enrolment in universities have soared as more students have been enrolling themselves in higher education institutes but current institutes cannot meet enrolling requirement. He was of the view that the private universities should not be barred to establish their campuses as it’s a good step but it should be made mandatory and binding on them to follow the set standards of HEC. The HEC had reservation that the bill for setting up three universities including the My University, the Dar-ul-Madina International University and the South Asian Strategic Institute University, went to National Assembly without taking HEC in the loop. The bill was moved in the assembly on January 29 and passed the same day without having any in-puts from the HEC as required that had raised suspicions.
Dr Mukhtar Ahmad opined that it is the responsibility of HEC to make sure that people who want to establish universities meet a set of requirements and if the universities start functioning without the approval of the HEC and following set standards, their degrees will be considered non-recognised and the future of the enrolled students will be on stake. Minister for Education and Training Sheikh Waqas Akram supported the stance of HEC and ensured that the universities would not be allowed to start admissions and courses until they get recognition from HEC.
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