If you do a 4-year bachelor program and someone else does a 2-year program, would you think of that education as your equal? Well, HEC apparently doesn’t think of it that way. And so, they announced that the 2-year programs to be unacceptable. Any such program that gave degrees after the academic year of 2018 was not going to be recognized.
HEC issued the directive in 2019. But here is the thing, there were people already enrolled in the two-year degree programs for the year 2018-2019. Some must have ended their 2-year program in 2020. All of them got informed that they do not hold a valid degree anymore. This must have been quite a shock for them.
HEC turns BA/BS into Associate Degree
As a possible solution, HEC has also said that those who have already attained this education or are currently enrolled in it, they can be awarded ‘Associate Degree’ instead of Bachelors. This obviously does not sit well with those students who sought admission with the hope of receiving a bachelor’s at the end of it. And hence, they started protesting.
The Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) was seen protesting on Tuesday in front of the Governor House. The agenda of the protestors were not just limited to bringing back the two-year bachelor’s program and denouncing the Associate Degree but also talking about MDCAT. The placards stated that they found irregularities in the MDCAT exam conducted under the supervision of the Pakistan Medical Commission. They said that they would prefer the restoration of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.
For the Associate Degree Program, the IJT spokesperson said that thousands of students were forced to accept the AD program because they couldn’t complete the four-year program, so HEC should bring the 2-year bachelor’s degree back.
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