The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has stiffened its standards for recognizing foreign online degrees, with Chairman Nadeem Mahbub announcing that both pending and new applications will undergo enhanced scrutiny under updated benchmarks.
In a press statement, the chairman said the criteria for acknowledging distance-learning qualifications conferred by chartered overseas universities have been revised and strengthened.
He added that the procedure for granting equivalence to qualifications issued by chartered foreign higher education institutions has been thoroughly reviewed.
According to the HEC, all old and fresh requests for equivalence will now be examined and processed under the relevant standards.
Each application will be evaluated individually and will proceed only after the applicant meets all mandatory conditions. These include validation of the awarding institution, confirmation of the degree’s accreditation, verification of the study mode and duration, and alignment with the levels and criteria set out in the Pakistan Qualification Framework (PQF).