Students of different public and private education institutions painted the external wall of the Government Emerson College in connection with National Accountability Bureau’s ongoing awareness campaign against corruption here on Thursday. The two weeks campaign began on November 27 and would culminate on December 12. NAB Director termed the youth a frontline force to end corruption and appreciated their efforts.

Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission this month issued a public notice listing 153 illegal universities and degree-awarding institutions. A large number of illegal universities mentioned in the HEC notice do not exist, some are run from apartments and commercial buildings and issue degrees not recognised by higher education authorities of the federal or provincial governments. Academics say, however, the rising trend of fake universities cannot be discouraged without punitive action against the management of the bogus institutions.

The Sindh Chief Minister told the Sindh assembly that they are taking steps to improve the education sector with emphasis to make exam result system free from corruption. He was responding to a call attention notice of a Pakistan lawmaker who asked why no action was taken by the government after the anti-corruption department raided the education boards in Karachi due to accusation of result tempering and embezzlement of public money.

During a meeting of Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) at the Chief Minister's House on Thursday, the Sindh Chief Minister stated that the Sindh government is working hard to enhance the literacy ratio in the country as it is the only tool which can get rid of prevalent corruption in the society. Briefing the meeting, the ACE Chairman said that from January to March 31, his team made 22 surprise visits, conducted 41 raids, made nine traps and registered and arrested 82 government officials.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has expressed concerns at universities not following the commission’s plagiarism policy by not taking action on plagiarism complaints against their faculty. HEC’s Plagiarism Standing Committee met on Friday to discuss plagiarism complaints against faculty members of 10 universities. The committee, comprising educationists and representatives of various universities, deliberated upon complaints that have not been actioned upon by the respective universities within 90 days of registration of a complaint, as per the HEC regulations.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan have locked horns over the verification of fake university degrees held by members of the federal and provincial assemblies, as the scandal spread to qualifications obtained at high school.

As Pakistan's Election Commission began its first hearings into parliamentarians' fake degrees last week some feared the scandal had been pushed out of the limelight by the devastating floods. Nonetheless, the degree debacle is straining the credibility of the country's higher education and election systems.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has asked all the universities of the country to provide a digital or computerised copy of the theses submitted by the students doing M Phil or PhD, so that it can upload all the theses on its website and an automatic check established. According to sources HEC have asked universities managements to warn postgraduate students that plagiarism would result in their degrees being cancelled. More than 5,000 people have been awarded PhD degree from various universities of the country out of which 1,000 have been uploaded on HEC website.