International Education Guide - Enterprise and Advanced Education ...

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION GUIDE for the assessment of education from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
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Affiliated colleges can be general or specialized. General
colleges offer a variety of courses in arts, commerce and
science. Specialized and professional colleges offer programs
in areas such as medicine, engineering, technology, law,
education and management.
Foreign Universities and Institutions
Offering Degree Programs
Among the newly emerged private institutions in Pakistan,
many claim to be branches, campuses or partners with
overseas institutions. Some of the claims are false, and
some of the overseas institutions operating in Pakistan
are unrecognized in their own jurisdictions. The Higher
Education Commission publishes a list of foreign
universities and degrees allowed to run collaborative degree
programs in Pakistan.
Admissions
Undergraduate Admission
Admission to higher education is mainly based on results
of the Higher Secondary Certificate or Intermediate
Certificate. Although successive national education policies
and Five-Year Plans stressed the need for admission tests for
universities and colleges, the practice has only begun to be
adopted in recent years.
Admission to certificate and diploma courses is based on
the completion of either secondary school (Grade 10) or
higher secondary school (Grade 12). For example, the threeyear
Diploma of Associate Engineer (DAE) requires Grade
10 in the science group for admission.
Admission to bachelor’s degree programs is based on
the completion of higher secondary school (Grade 12).
Applicants must pass the HSC or Intermediate Certificate
Examination administered by a recognized Board of
Intermediate and Secondary Examination. Refer to the
previous chapter, School Education, for a list of recognized
boards. Equivalencies such as the British General
Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE A-level)
examinations in relevant subjects may be considered.
For entry into their various undergraduate programs,
universities prescribe minimum marks (for example, 45
per cent) in the required course group (for example, preengineering)
for the HSC or Intermediate Certificate.
Entry into professional programs such as engineering,
medicine, dentistry and pharmacy is more competitive
than entrance into general programs (BA, BCom and
BSc). Admission to bachelor’s degree programs at the
Allama Iqbal Open University is also based on possession
of the HSC or Intermediate Certificate, but there are no
minimum mark requirements.
In addition to the HSC or Intermediate Certificate, some
institutions require applicants to attend an admission test
and/or interview. A university may administer its own
admission test, recognize the test conducted by another
university, or use the results of the National Testing Service
described below. The university decides the weight of the
admission test results versus HSC marks in the admission
criteria, for example, 20:80, 30:70 or 40:60.
Not all applicants are admitted on an equal basis. In
addition to the seats open to general competition, usually
called the merit list, universities may prescribe a small
number of reserved seats for various groups such as
refugees, tribal area inhabitants, children of armed forces
personnel, and so on. An applicant may receive additional
marks for being a Hafiz-e-Quran (a person who has
memorized the Holy Quran). Students from well-to-do
families may choose the self-finance scheme, which has
lower admission standards than those for regular students.
Graduate Admission
Admission into master’s programs generally requires a
bachelor’s degree in a related discipline in the First or
Second Division. Some selective institutions or programs
may require a bachelor’s degree in the First Division or a
high minimum mark in aggregate. Like undergraduate
programs, graduate programs in professional fields, such as
engineering, medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, are more
competitive than general programs (for example, MA,
MCom and MSc).
Universities usually require graduate program applicants
to attend an admission test and interview. A university
may administer its own admission test, recognize the
test conducted by another university, or use the results of
the National Testing Service, as described below. Some
universities may require or accept international tests
such as Graduate Record Examinations or the Graduate
Management Admission Test. The university decides the
weight of the different elements in the admission criteria,