AJK's Al-Khair University: No degree acceptable after April 30: HEC

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD: The participants of the 18th meeting of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Saturday expressed reservations about continued ‘substandard operation’ of Al-Khair University.

A press release said to safeguard interests of students and ensure provision of quality education in Pakistan, the HEC had directed that Al-Khair University must stop all new admissions and that the commission would not recognise any degree issued to students by the university after April 30, 2009.

Al-Khair University, with a charter issued by government of the AJK, was not legally authorised to open any campus, grant affiliation or have franchises in any area of Pakistan unless it had got approval from government of the province concerned in addition to having academic jurisdiction in that particular area, it said.

It said the HEC had been forced to take the decision not to recognise the degrees issued to students admitted to Al-Khair University after April 30, in light of the fact that the university had not established a proper main campus in AJK that was the minimum requirement as per Cabinet Criteria and guidelines for establishment of a new university.

It said the university was offering degree programmes in professional disciplines such as law, pharmacy, electrical engineering, homeopathy etc and was not meeting the minimum criteria for accreditation.

Over the years, the AJK president had also directed the university to meet the standards set for quality education, build the infrastructure required and hire necessary faculty members, it said.

It said these critical issues had not been addressed by the university leading to the decision of the commission not to accept future enrolments into any academic programmes of Al-Khair University.

To ensure that the students currently enrolled in this university did not suffer, the commission had constituted a committee to address the issue.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg11_4