The Sindh government on Wednesday rejected the Higher Education Commission (HEC)’s policy to abolish the two-year Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs.
Adviser to Chief Minister on Universities and Boards Nisar Khuhro, addressing a press conference, termed HEC’s move an “attack” on provincial sovereignty and announced the continuation of all two-year degree programs in the province.
“All the universities of Sindh will continue the two-year degree programmes via the provincial autonomy under the universities act,” the adviser said.
The adviser said that at times the federal government robs the right of the students through the Pakistan Medical Commission and sometimes it attacks the provincial autonomy through its tactics.
The adviser said the HEC’s recent measures, including the associate degree programme and PhD policy, would deprive the middle and lower-middle-class of higher education on a large scale.
Last year, HEC had issued directives to all educational institutions to stop the two-year bachelor’s degree programmes as it will not recognise any such programmes undertaken after the academic year 2018.
In this regard, the commission had written a letter to all public and private sector degree awarding institutions directing them to immediately stop such programmes as HEC has decided to phase-out the two-year degree BA/BSc programme. According to the HEC, these programmes have been “phased out because of quality concerns.”
“One or two universities have announced admission to unauthorised BA/BSc and MA/MSc programmes. While this will earn money for the university, it will not be in the interest of the students. These discarded degrees will not enable students to apply for jobs or further education,” the notification stated.
