WITH the passage of time, the Higher Education Commission (HEC), which was originally formed to facilitate and promote higher education in the country, has purportedly become a controlling authority, challenging the autonomy of the universities.

The HEC has started to attest degrees/ transcripts and diplomas awarded by the chartered universities/degree-awarding institutions both in the public and private sector.

As per the requirement for documents in sealed envelopes for WES/ICAS, the commission states that it will seal only HEC-attested photocopies of educational documents in an envelope and will hand over to the applicant(s) or his/her blood relative/authorised person. The applicant(s) can also avail the services of authorised courier company for attestation and sealing of HEC-attested photocopies of educational documents.

The role of the HEC in the whole processlooks asifthey arerunningarather expensive post office that simply puts a stamp on an already attested document.

In another remarkable instruction, the commission cautioned the applicants that fake degrees and allotheroriginal educational documents would be confiscated and handed over to FIA for further investigation. One wonders who would be foolish enough to send f ake documents to the HEC when they are not verified by the parent institution.

The procedure is self-explanatory and describes the role of the HEC very well as a money-collection agency sponsored by the government. It is worth mentioning that the HEC charges significantly higher fee for this otherwise useless and timeconsuming exercise compared to that charged by the parent institution.

It ought to be stressed that a lot of people were getting admission to foreign universities as well as immigrating to developed parts of the globe even before this degree attestation system without losing extra money and precious time.

Now they are bound to get it done from the HEC, thanks to the authorities concerned who are trying their level best to transform the HEC into a profitable organisation and seem to be highly successfulin achieving thisgoal.

Prof (Dr) Intikhab Ulfat University of Karachi Karachi