Islamabad - Senate Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training on Wednesday, seeking details of the institutions involved in awarding fake degrees, directed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to hold an in-camera briefing.
The Chairperson of the committee Senator Raheela Magsi presided over the meeting, where two issues on public petitions and a briefing by Vice Chancellor (VC) Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) were discussed.
Chairman HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmed told the meeting that HEC had closed around 110 PhD programs in different universities who were awarding fake degrees. Senator Azam Swati said that three institutions in the federal capital are involved in this practice.
“A mafia is running this business and they send the youth with unrecognized certificates to Middle East,” he said.
The senator said that the institutes are giving diplomas in health and technical fields.
“Selling of unrecognized certificate is damaging the image of the country at international level,” he said.
Chairman HEC told the senate body that corrupt and influential mafia is running a network of distributing fake degrees and the same elements wants disintegration of the federal HEC.
“The degrees were being sold like mobile SIMs but now HEC has controlled the situation,” he said.
He said that HEC is committed on marinating the standard of the quality education and can give in-camera briefing to expose the elements involved in this illegal business.
The chair recommended an in-camera briefing for detailed discussion in the next session.
Discussing the issue on agenda regarding public petition submitted by students of Institute of Space Technology (IST) Islamabad, pertaining to the program of Aircraft Maintenance, the meeting was told that the institute did not hold any discrimination against the students.
Chairman HEC informed the senate body that IST is managing the Aircraft running program under European Safety Agency. The petitioners were dropped from the exams for using unfair means to pass the exam.
He said the IST cannot arrange training, as it can only take exams and four students were failed in the exams because of their own mistakes, and now they demand reimbursement of the fee.
The committee disposed off the public petition and recommended to introduce aviation training for the students joining aerospace technology field.
The HEC chairman also briefed the senate body that degrees verification system has been made online and linked with NADRA, and the degrees of foreign universities are attested after verification of the student from the chartered university registered with HEC.
The chair recommended establishing a help desk at HEC to address the issues related with degrees verification.
VC AIOU Dr Shahid Siddique in his briefing to committee said that the university is getting only 8 per cent financial support from HEC while it is running a large country wide setup.
He also told the meeting that HEC does not have any criteria for declaring the ranking of distant learning university.
He said that the university also initiated learning programs from jail inmates and eunuchs in country while 56 per cent of students enrolled with AIOU are females and majority from rural areas.
The VC AIOU also pleaded before the legislatures to allocate the land in their respective constituencies for establishing regional campuses of the university.
He also said that the university is establishing three centres in Gawadar, Lahore and Islamabad for Chinese language learning where students will be given online lectures.
Senator Sehar Kamran said that the students from distance learning institutes are not given equal recognition and opportunities due to lack of exposure. She said the salary will be raised to Rs15000 after the approval. She said that the decision would be implemented next year. The meeting was attended by the Minister for Federal Education Baligh-ur-Rehman, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, Senator Sehar Kamran, and Senator Azam Khan Awat.