Home »General News » Pakistan » Unrecognized colleges, universities: HEC chairman to give in-camera briefing to Senate panel

  • News Desk
  • Nov 16th, 2017
  • Comments Off on Unrecognized colleges, universities: HEC chairman to give in-camera briefing to Senate panel
Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr Mukhtar Ahmed on Wednesday said that he would give an in-camera briefing to Senate Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training about unrecognized/illegal colleges set up across the country. A meeting of the committee was held here in the Parliament House in the chair of Senator Rahila Magsi.

The HEC chairman said he would give an in-camera briefing to the committee in its next meeting about presence of unrecognized colleges and universities' campuses across the country. He said that there has been a lot of political pressure on the HEC regarding unrecognized colleges and he requested the committee members to get an in-camera briefing for him on the issue which the members agreed.

Discussing the plight of students of Islamabad Law College, the committee was briefed that Islamia University Bahawalpur has cancelled affiliation of the law college, putting future of around 209 students at risk who have already passed examination of part one. The HEC chairman said that affiliation of the college was cancelled after it failed to fulfill all legal requirements, admitting that there has been a mushroom growth of unrecognized colleges and universities' campuses across the country.

Senator Nauman Wazir, however, said that it is responsibility of the HEC to keep a check on the fake, illegal and unrecognized educational institutions. He suggested the HEC to conduct a third party test of all students affected by closure of Islamabad Law College to resolve their issue. Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Baligh-ur-Rehman said that his ministry has been pro-active and taking action against the unrecognized colleges and universities.

He informed the committee members that as many as 450 programs have been closed in different universities for not fulfilling the legal and educational requirements. The committee chairman directed the HEC chairman to create awareness about the unrecognized colleges and universities through advertisements on media.

On another public petition submitted by student of Institute of Space Technology Islamabad, a student representative of the institute informed the committee members that they were promised an on-job-training during their studies, but the institute has not honored the commitment. Vice Chancellor of the institute said that on-job-training of the students is not possible until they pass all their course work because no company allows on-site training of the students who have not completed their academic course.

The minister presented Apprenticeship Bill 2017 for consideration and the committee decided to take it up for discussion in the next meeting. The minister informed the committee members that Apprenticeship Act was promulgated in 1962 and since then no amendment has been introduced to it. He said that his ministry has been working on the bill since 2014 and its purpose is to ensure practical experience of the students during their studies.



the author

Top
Close
Close