ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has directed all private schools to stop offering degree programmes in collaboration with foreign universities.

`Private schools in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi have come up with hundreds of campuses across major cities and are offering degree programmes without ensuring the quality of education. Most private schools lackresourcesandfacilitiesand donothtthe HEC`s criteria to offerhigher education degree programmes. It is imperative to evolve a mechanism before offering highereducation degrees to students,` HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said, following a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology on Wednesday.

The committee met to discuss the fate of 2,800 students who have either completed or are currently enrolled in a dual degree programme offered by the Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CHT) and Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.

Dr Ahmed told the press he is flying to the UK on Thursday to meet representatives of various educational institutions and ask them to take the commission on board before collaborating with schools and colleges in Pakistan.

`Some private schools in Islamabad have an NOC from the HEC to offer degree programmes in Islamabad only. Private schools are in the money-making business, more than imparting quality education. They are not permitted to start degree programmes without fulfilling the HEC`s criteria to offer students proper campuses and facilities,` Dr Ahmed said.He also told the Senate committee that the matter of the Comsats-Lancaster University dual degree programme and its 2,800 graduates and students would be at the top of his agenda during his visit to the UK.

`We are taking up the matter with Lancaster University especially, to discuss options and come up with a solution for the CUT`s controversial dual degree programme,` he said.

Comsats offered the dual degree programme in 2010, but it did not become controversial until 2013, when the HEC refused to recognise it. Comsats graduates who were continuing their studies abroad found it difEcult to have their educational certiHcates attested by the commission.

The Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) also refused to recognise the Comsats engineering programme. The HEC has maintained that the Comsats management launched its dual degree programme in violation of HEC rules. The 2,800 students who were enrolled in the programme were charged over £2,000.

Despite a 2015 Lahore High Court rulingthat directed the HEC and the PEC to recognise the dual degree programme, Dr Ahmed maintained that the degree could not be recognised.

`We will discuss a few options with Lancaster University to sort out the problem so students do not suffer. One option could be to ask Lancaster University to award an MS degree to the affected students after another year of studies, without charging extra fees, Dr Ahmed said. He added that the HEC did not have a mechanism to recognise dual degree programmes.

However, CUT Rector Junaid Zaidi disagreed with the HEC, saying the commission had approved the dual degree programme.

`Without a go-ahead from the HEC, the CUT would not have offered the programme to students and compromised their futures.

Nonetheless, Comsats will follow the HEC`s directions to safeguard the interests of the affected students,` Mr Zaidi said.

Committee chairman Senator Osman Saifullah Khan has given the HEC three months to settle the matter, which has now beenpendingforthree years.