ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has announced newUndergraduate Education Policy 2020 and the PhD Policy aimed to protectstudents’ right to acquire quality education.
Announcing the new policy, Chairman HEC Dr Tariq Banuri in a press talk onWednesday stated that the new policy would also increase the value ofhigher education degrees nationally and internationally.
The chairman said that there was a mismatch between the education systemand the industry needs, which rightly raised concerns pertaining to a lackof marketable skills in the graduates produced by Pakistani universities.
He said that the Undergraduate Education Policy 2020 has been formulated toaddress these concerns, adding that the policy would promote practicalcompetence and general education skills in addition to the tradition focuson discipline-based curriculum.
“To promote practical competency of students, the universities will ensurethat their graduates acquire a nine-week internship in addition to goingthrough an extracurricular training before obtaining degrees” he added.
Banuri said that the universities must be committed to produce qualifiedgraduates, whose overall level of knowledge and competence is up to themark. He informed the media persons that the professional accreditationcouncils were being strengthened to improve the quality of disciplinaryeducation.
“Our intention is to improve the quality of our graduates and theconfidence of employers in the worth of our degrees.”
Regarding the structure of undergraduate education, he said that thetwo-year BA/BSc and MA/MSc programmes had been phased out to shift towardsfour-year BS programmes, and the Associate Degree programme, a credit-basedsystem, has replaced the two-year BA/BSc degree, however the students whowant to continue their studies can have a bridge to the four-year BSprogramme.
Elaborating the new PhD Policy, Banuri said that it had been upgraded inline with the international best practices and was applicable from 1stJanuary, 2021.
He said that the BS graduates could now directly take admission in PhDprogrammes and in a different discipline if universities find them‘prepared’ and ‘committed’.
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The chairman explained that preparedness means that the students haveenough knowledge, competence, and previous academic training enabling themto succeed in a PhD programme. “The universities will also assess theapplicants’ commitment to the discipline,” he added.
Apart from the admission criteria, he said, the PhD students would have togo through a thorough evaluation before they complete their studies.Likewise, the teaching and mentoring system has also been reorganised onthe pattern of ancient Sufi episteme, so that students may better benefitfrom their teachers and mentors, he mentioned.
He said that the universities may choose to have BS or MS/MPhil as theminimum criteria for admissions, however, the minimum requirement foradmission in PhD programmes is a BS degree. If the PhD students comedirectly from BS programmes, they may be required to complete a largernumber of credit hours compared to those who have previously completedMS/MPhil degrees.
The policy requires the scholars to study 50 per cent of courses in theuniversity that covers two years in residence, so that the students canclosely interact with their supervisors.
The Chairman informed the media that the two policies were formulated afterthorough deliberations and consultations with the relevant stakeholdersincluding Vice Chancellors, professors, and educationists.
To a question, he said that HEC has set a criteria of five students withone professor for PhD students so that the teacher could focus on students.
To another query, he said that although the experience of online educationduring the pandemic was remain good but it also have some technologicalweaknesses. He also suggested physical examinations to sustain standard ofthe education, adding, online exams would low the value of degrees.
