This is with reference to the news item entitled “80pc of PhD theses go missing” published in Pakistan Today on 20 July, 2011. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has developed a PhD Country Directory with the cooperation of all higher education institutions (HEIs) in which comprehensive information is made available on each PhD graduate from any university of Pakistan. Scanned PhD theses are also uploaded on Pakistan Research Repository website (http://eprints.hec.gov.pk) for open access to all researchers in Pakistan and abroad.
As per HEC record, total number of PhDs is 7214 till July 30, 2011, out of which 3700 full text PhD theses are uploaded at Repository while more than 1000 PhD theses are in the process of being scanned and uploaded.
As per HEC policy, all public and private universities/institutes are required to provide a copy of PhD thesis, PhD notification, names of external reviewers and one paper publication details prior to award of PhD degree. The attestation and verification of PhD degrees is being done only for those PhDs whose information and thesis is available with HEC. The same has been implemented since 2009 by HEC.
On the request of universities, HEC is also facilitating University of Karachi, University of the Punjab, Lahore, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and University of Sindh, Jamshoro for scanning more than 2000 PhD theses for the year 2008 and before (backlog) as the universities had only one copy of thesis available for their reference libraries. PhD theses are also being checked through the plagiarism software at HEC and universities.
AAYESHA IKRAM
HEC, Pakistan