Private universities pilloried for ruining education system

Chief Justice seeks data on all colleges in Punjab granted permission to open campuses in various cities

Saqib Nisar, Chief Justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court, yesterday said the mushrooming of universities in the private sector had resulted in the decline of education.

He made the comment while hearing a suo motu case in a matter related to a private sector university that did not issue degrees to its students.

Heading a three-member bench, Nisar expressed his surprise at how a university that has made huge amounts of money in fees and other tutorial expenses could deny degrees to its students.

Such varsities are wreaking havoc not only on the standards of education but also with the future of the nation, said Nisar.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan had taken a suo motu notice over the media reports that students of a college affiliated with University of South Asia, Lahore were not being issued degrees as the university was operating without the permission of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and didn’t meet its criteria.

During the hearing at the Lahore registry of the Supreme Court, the HEC representative informed the top court that the University of South Asia made affiliations with colleges without seeking permission from HEC.

To this, the chief justice remarked, “They are defrauding the people and have ruined the education system.”

The court wants to know how many private universities are allowed to operate in Punjab and what their fee criteria was. Similarly, if they were providing all the required facilities to the students and whether qualification of their faculty was up to the mark or not, asked the top judge of the country.

The chief justice directed the advocate general of the Punjab to provide all the necessary details on the next date of hearing. The chief justice warned the universities in violation of HEC’s criteria of the strict action that will follow.