The stakeholders have strongly rejected the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) new PhD policy for its ‘unilateral and arbitrary’ nature.

The policy that was introduced earlier this year allowed students to pursue PhD studies directly after four years of the BS program. Another aspect of the policy is that it stipulates PhD scholars to send their dissertations to Pakistani experts instead of foreign experts, as was required under the previous policy.

However, the policy does not sit well with stakeholders, including administrations and VCs of public and private universities. They vented out their anger in a Vice-Chancellors Committee meeting held on Friday in collaboration with British Council.

A majority of the participants, 178 out of 180, rejected the new undergraduate and PhD policies and called out the commission for not heeding stakeholders’ recommendations in this regard.

They warned the HEC against regularizing this policy until certain features of it are removed or amended.

One of the participants, a VC of a public university, expressed concerns that the undergraduate policy stipulates internship as a mandatory requirement. He maintained that some of the students are reluctant to adhere to these changes.

“They are not even willing to attach their pictures on the admission form,” he said.

On the other hand, the Association of Private Sector Universities of Pakistan (APSUP) also rejected the new undergraduate and PhD policies.

In a press release, the APSUP said it had conveyed reservations to HEC about the new policies through a letter written on 14 December 2020.

“Based on seven countrywide consultation sessions, which were attended by 190 vice-chancellors, senior academics, and experts, recommendations were also communicated to HEC,” the release read.

The association lamented that the new policies were not aligned with ground realities and were not able to yield a positive impact.

Meanwhile, the executive director of the HEC, Shaista Ikram, assured that the commission would review its policy as per the demands of the stakeholders.

The move will allow higher education institutes of Sindh to take admissions in PhD programs under the old policy for the academic session 2022.

Source: Pro Pakistani