The Higher Education Commission (HEC) today issued a directive to all professional accreditation councils, reasserting its exclusive legal authority to set and enforce national standards for all university-level programmes and curbing the regulatory scope of discipline-specific bodies.
In a formal communication sent to the heads of organisations including the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the Commission underscored that its overarching policy infrastructure is paramount, as stipulated by the HEC Ordinance 2002.
The letter clarified that while professional bodies perform a vital function in accrediting undergraduate programmes, they must operate strictly within the broader framework established by the HEC.
The Commission delineated its exclusive prerogative over system-level regulatory matters, which includes the formulation of national standards, prescribing minimum criteria for academic qualifications, developing curricula, and setting policies for the appointment and evaluation of university faculty.
A significant point of clarification concerned postgraduate education. Citing the Graduate Education Policy (GEP-2023), the HEC stated that programmes at MPhil/MS level (Level-7) and Doctoral level (Level-8) fall directly within its academic regulatory mandate. The research-based nature of these advanced degrees means the formulation of policies on faculty eligibility and quality standards remains the sole right of the Commission.
Consequently, all accreditation councils have been instructed to ensure their guidelines and criteria are fully aligned with HEC policies. This directive specifically requires that any provisions related to faculty qualifications, professional experience, and research publications must be consistent with the criteria prescribed by the HEC to maintain national uniformity.
To enhance sector-wide coherence, the Commission highlighted the implementation of two key frameworks. The Pakistan Precepts, Standards and Guidelines (PSG-2023) provides an internationally benchmarked system for institutional governance and quality, while the Reviewing and Effectiveness of Quality Assurance and Accreditation Bodies (REQAAB) framework has been activated to regulate the councils themselves.
The directive was dispatched to a wide array of bodies, encompassing the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), Pharmacy Council, National Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (NACTE), National Computing Education Accreditation Council (NCEAC), and the National Business Education Accreditation Council (NBEAC), among others.
The HEC concluded by reiterating its commitment to fostering a robust and internationally comparable higher education system through continued collaboration with all accreditation organisations.