The creation of Higher Education Commission at provincial level was not an option in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This was revealed by Secretary Higher Education Muhammad Ali Shehzada while addressing one day workshop on Assessment of BS programme in Government Colleges at the University of Peshawar. He said a lot of deliberation has been made on adopting creation of provincial HEC on the model of Punjab; however, the idea was not acceded as it would create a lot of legal complications.

The one day workshop was organized by Frontier Education Foundation in collaboration with UoP at the Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Hall. Vice Chancellor UoP Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rasul Jan, MD FEF Mr. Hifzur Rehman, VC`s of other public sector Universities, Principals of all public sector colleges were present on the occasion.

Addressing the workshop principals of the colleges opined that affiliation of BS programme in colleges should be streamlined and ideally the colleges shall be given degree awarding status. They added that curricula and course content shall also be approved in consultation with them.

Vice Chancellor UoP Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rasul Jan said that development of a uniform affiliation system and curricula was the need of time, in order to achieve uniformity in the BS education system. He added HEC curriculum guidelines shall be adopted by varsity bodies after mandatory changes if.  

Dr. Jan maintained that the BS four years programme is a universal system of higher education and it’s high time that we should maintain quality as our top most priority for it. Quoting the example of UoP he said that the University abolished BS in evening in order to unload the existing faculty so that they should focus more on research and productivity at the BS level rather than just quantifying the system.

MD Frontier Education Foundation Mr. Hifzur Rehman said that presently 41 public sector colleges are running the BS degree programme where around 14000 students are studying. He added the affiliated colleges shall strictly follow the courses being taught at their respective (affiliate) Universities.