Islamabad (Staff Report): Currently, fake degrees are becoming trendy with master con artists. These fake degrees cannot be differentiated easily with the naked eye, which is why Higher Education Commission (HEC) has decided to take action against fake ones.
The official reported that HEC has approved an online system, which will not only attest the degrees but also verify if the degree is valid or not.
He added, “…to determine the equivalence and recognition of degrees, diplomas and certificates awarded by Institutions within the country and abroad.”
The applicants who want to get their degrees attested online are expected to go through following process:
Applicants will upload relevant documents
Academic credentials.
Identity documents.
The system will check applicant’s information by contacting NADRA and PQR database.
Controller of Examinations will have access to view the documents to assess their legitimacy.
If the documents are authentic, the system will attest the documents and contact the applicant.
Pakistan Qualification Register (PQR) is an information database of the universities institutions. Information such as their campuses, departments, degree programs and exact titles and level of qualification etc. will be saved in the database for evaluation.
The system will also be linked to PQR with NADRA database. If the degree programs are not in the PQR database then the applicants will not be able to get their degrees attested.
The aim of this database is to strengthen security measure to filter out the fake degrees. With the help of NADRA and PQR database, fake degrees can finally be eliminated altogether.
After all policies and measures verification Via Controller Examination is perhaps the most crucial step of all, as it is the first time that the Controller of Examinations will play a crucial role in the verification process.
The control of the system will be possible through The Controller of Examinations and they can view the uploaded scanned copies of the applicants; be it degree, transcript or the provisional certificate.
Within 24 hours Controller of Examinations will verifu the document’s legitimacy online. If the verification is not done within a day, the universities will be notified via email so that the process can be completed as soon as possible.
The verification process is enough to ensure the legitimacy of the documents under online supervision of HEC to attest the degrees only after verifying them first.
However, there are a number of unanswered questions when it comes to the new system:
Is this process optional or is it compulsory even if your degree is already attested?
Will job applications require degrees to be attested online beforehand?
If any fake degree is identified, what will be the consequences?
We will have more concrete information once this system launches. Keep watching this space for more.