‘HEC violating its own rules by conducting tests for scholarship programme’

The Higher Education Commission is violating its own rules and regulations by conducting tests for its scholarship programmes through its Educational Testing Service (ETC).

It has been reliably learned that the HEC was conducting tests of the aspiring candidates for various scholarship programmes through its own newly-established body ETC which was a sheer violation of its own rules and regulations.

The HEC has recently announced indigenous scholarship programme 2016-17 for students and will also conduct tests for this scholarship itself. According to a source, the HEC has established its own test-taking body namely ETC and claimed that the body would not charge any fee from students for tests. But recently the HEC had announced Rs 500 fee per person for test of indigenous scholarship programme, the source said.

While talking to Pakistan Today, Arid Agriculture University Vice Chancellor Rai Muhammad Niaz said that the HEC has not a mandate to conduct tests for its own scholarship programme as it was against the rules and regulation of the commission. He informed that principally the HEC was not authorised to conduct tests for its scholarship scheme as it had announced the programme for itself. Niaz said that Educational Testing Service (ETC) which was formed by the HEC to conduct tests for the scholarships and admission in higher educational institutions was also against the rules and regulations.

‘Such a body was not mentioned in its articles of memorandum and did not allow the HEC to conduct such tests for scholarship programme and admissions’, he added. Another educational expert said that the HEC was a regulatory body which could not conduct tests without involving third party or test-taking body.

He said that 2 members of HEC in its board meeting had also opposed the formation of ETC. The HEC was totally violating merit as it was conducting tests for its own scholarship and questioned, ‘How a university can verify a degree which itself awarded’.

When contacted the HEC spokesperson, she said that the commission was facilitating the applicants by holding test, there was no clash of interest as HEC was not an applicant. “The tests are being carried out according to system approach to enable transparent selection of candidates for PhD studies and HEC is empowered under its ordinance to either hire a testing service or set up testing service on its own,’ she said. Thus, HEC was not violating the verdict of LHC adding that HEC Ordinance permits it to establish testing service.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2016 closed 31 PhD and 26 MPhil programmes because of lack of fulfillment of minimum quality standards, an official said on Wednesday. The commission reviewed a total of 293 PhD and 57 MPhil programmes of 171 universities, of which 31 PhD and 26 MPhil programmes of different universities were closed due to low quality standards. Earlier, the National Testing Service (NTS), a private body set up by the Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) in 2003, used to conduct recruitment tests not only for universities but also for private and public institutions, including courts of law and security agencies, charging heavy test fees.

But in March 2014, the Lahore High Court (LHC) declared the NTS illegal and directed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to ensure that no private firms conduct tests as long as a national testing service is not constituted through proper legislation.

Complying with the court’s orders, the HEC decided to form the Education Testing Council (ETC) that will be functional by the end of this year.