DNA

Islamabad, June 29,  –  The Higher Education Commission has clarified that it has neither evaluated universities nor issued any ranking for their online readiness. A section of the press has published news reports issued by different universities, which are contrary to this fact.

HEC has asked universities to self-report their readiness, and this self-reporting has been shared with the public. The list referred by some universities is just a statement of how much information has been submitted by them. So far, 138 universities have submitted their information and it is available online whereas the remainder (about 30%) of the universities have yet to submit their reports.

The purpose of making this information available online is to help universities improve their performance, rather than rank various universities. The percentage figure associated with various universities refers simply to the quantum of the information they have submitted by the due date. It is not a comparison or reflection of the quality of their online offering.

According to the information gathered so far from universities, faculty members are delivering 108,084 out of 112,109 courses online to students. A total of 42,392 faculty members have received training in how to provide online education; this represents 86.7 per cent of the 48,851 faculty members who have started teaching online since the start of the pandemic. Similarly, 127 out of 138 universities have reported that they have started providing their students with access to digital library resources.

HEC will evaluate this information once completed by the varsities and will duly inform newspapers if any qualitative ranking is developed as a result. Universities are requested not to claim that they have been rated or found by HEC to be in 100% compliance with requirements. The newspapers are also requested to verify such information from HEC before publishing it.

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