Judging from the quality of education attained by our graduates entering the job market every year, it comes as no surprise that there over 3,000 colleges working illegally across the country.

The Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, while addressing a panel of senators at the Senate Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training, mentioned that nearly 45 campuses and 3,328 colleges offering degrees have neither affiliation with universities nor have they secured no-objection certificates from the regulatory body of higher education. What this means is that there is no way to ensure that these institutes will be providing a reasonable standard of education. The degrees they give out to students will also not be recognised by other legal and regulated institutes and the HEC.

The Senate Standing committee has blamed the HEC for their weak policies on regulating higher education institutions, and rightly so. The situation is hardly new, and it has been highlighted in newspapers in the past as well. There is also evidence that a number of colleges have been granted affiliations without proper monitoring of required facilities. The rules concerning the grant of affiliation status are so loose that a public university can grant such a status to any college in the country. It is also surprising that HEC only visits colleges within the limits of Islamabad for monitoring and inspection. For colleges established in provinces, the relevant university is responsible for such visits.

These institutes that are running without accreditation also cannot be allowed to skirt the blame. Preston University, Federal Urdu University of Arts and COMSATS Institute of Information Technology are some of the violators that have been names in news reports. The HEC may well be inefficient, but this is no excuse to continue to give out unaccredited degrees. The HEC blames the federal and provincial governments, saying that they do not take the HEC on board before the opening or affiliation of new campuses. Dr. Ahmed said that there was a policy time period of four months given to colleges and universities for affiliation, but they skirt this requirement by enrolling hundreds of students and then compelling the Commission to recognise their illegal institution or degree.

COMSATS had launched a dual degree programme in engineering without the recommendations of the HEC and Pakistan Engineer council. The Parliamentary committee has now directed the regulatory bodies to recognise at least the enrolled students.
It is good that the Senate is taking note of these issues. Higher education is risky business for students. They risk getting nothing out of the experience except an empty bank account. The HEC needs to make efforts to make sure this stops.