New policies for academic programmes for students, not VCs: HEC chairman

ISLAMABAD-Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Prof. Dr. Tariq Banuri on Wednesday said that new policies for undergraduate and PhD programmes have been prepared for students not for the Vice Chancellors (VC). 

The chairman HEC said this in a press briefing held here responding to the query asked about concerns of the VCs of the universities who claimed they were not taken on-board while preparing new policies of undergraduate and PhD programmes. 

“Our aim is to protect students and policies are being made for students not for the VCs,” he said. 

The Chairman said that there was a mismatch between the education system and the industry needs, which rightly raised concerns pertaining to a lack of marketable skills in the graduates produced by Pakistani universities. 

He said that the Undergraduate Education Policy 2020 has been formulated to address these concerns, adding that the policy will promote practical competence and general education skills in addition to the tradition focus on discipline-based curriculum. 

“To promote practical competency of students, the universities will ensure that their graduates acquire a nine-week internship in addition to going through an extracurricular training before obtaining degrees,” he said. 

 Regarding the structure of undergraduate education, he said that the two-year BA/BSc and MA/MSc programmes have been phased out to shift towards four-year BS programmes, and the Associate Degree programme, a credit-based system, has replaced the two-year BA/BSc degree, however, the students who want to continue their studies can have a bridge to the four-year BS programme. 

Elaborating the new PhD Policy, Mr. Banuri said that it has been upgraded in line with the international best practices and is applicable from 1st January, 2021. He said that the BS graduates can now directly take admission in PhD programmes and in a different discipline if universities find them ‘prepared’ and ‘committed.’  

Apart from the admission criteria, the PhD students will have to go through a thorough evaluation before they complete their studies. 

Article source: https://nation.com.pk/21-Jan-2021/new-policies-for-academic-programmes-for-students-not-vcs-hec-chairman