Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) has moved ahead in line with the consultations collected from past 18 months to revamp the undergraduate programme in the country. The consultation took place within more than 1000 key stakeholders from around 143 universities nationwide. This redesign will see the undergraduate programme to transform into a competency-based model. By competency, it means a combination of knowledge, skills, behaviours and characteristics that will lead to individual success.

In advocation of this revamp, Chairman HEC, Dr Tariq Banuri said, “Universities have to work in such a way as to maximize the probability of such success, especially through the undergraduate degree programme, which is the flagship of any higher education system. In practice, however, this has not been the case. A major reason is that very little attention has been given in the past to this question, and therefore to the substance and quality of university education.”

Dr Banuri said that the old undergraduate curriculum does not provide students with skills for critical and creative thinking, problem solving, effective communication, quantitative analysis, team building or research methods. The new curriculum is designed to enable the transmission of these skills as well as interpersonal and behavioural attributes.

This redesign of the undergraduate programme will come into effect from the coming year. Work has already started to update the undergrad curriculum in order to effectively use education to enhance a diversified skillset among the students. In addition, practical experience will take a key position and become a major requisite in the completion of the graduate programme. Also, it is envisioning that transfer of disciplines will be made easily possible for students and it will take a few credit requirements to complete the transfer.

The framework will apply to all undergraduate degrees, including the four-year bachelor studies degree (BS), degrees in any of the professions - MBBS, BE., LLB, and the like - as well as two-year associate degrees (AD). [1]