The Higher Education Commission (colloquially known as HEC) is a statutory body formed by the Government of Pakistan which was established in 2002 under the Chairmanship of Atta-ur-Rahman. Its main functions are funding, overseeing, regulating and accrediting the higher education institutions in the country.
It was first established in 1974 as University Grants Commission (UGC), and came into its modern form on 11 September 2002 after Atta-ur-Rahman's reforms, which received international praise. The commission is responsible for formulating higher education policy and quality assurance to meet the international standards as well as providing accrediting academic degrees, development of new institutions and uplift of existing institutions in Pakistan.
The commission also facilitated the development of higher educational system in the country with the main purpose of upgrading the universities and degree awarding institutes in the country to be focal point of the high learning of education, research and development. Over several years, it has played an important and leading role towards building a knowledge-based economy in Pakistan by giving out hundreds of doctoral scholarships for education abroad every year.
History
1947–1971: Genesis and development
At the time of establishment of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, the country had only one institution of higher learning, University of the Punjab and among forty colleges expanded to four provinces of Pakistan. Education policy revised by Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan, the government established various universities and colleges in all over the country. The same year, Muhammad Ali Jinnah held a National Education Conference (also known as Pakistan Education Conference) of academicians and state holders to revise the policy of higher education in the country, as he stated:
Many recommendations were directed and accepted by the government to establish the University Grants Commission as a federal regulatory institution. Efforts led by Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy led to the imposition of Soviet-oriented first five-year plans which explained the first official education policy in 1956. The first plan was an attempt to make education development suitable for the socio-economic development in the country.
In the 1960s, the financial policies and economic programs introduced by President of Pakistan Ayub Khan greatly emphasized to importance of higher education in the country. A significant proportion of the budget was actually spent to promote higher education efforts in the country. Thesis written by Usman Ali Isani pointed out that 912 million rupees were spent annually for the fiscal period of 1960–65 in a joint collaboration led by Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (the then called Ministry of Education), University Grants Commission and Planning Commission. Colleges were transformed into full-scale research universities and special research institutes were established in all over the country. According to the calculations performed by the Statistics Division and published by Isani, around 430,000 students were enrolled in different universities to pursue their higher education over the fiscal period of 1960–65. From 1965 to 1971, the government spent 173.8 million rupees on the education sector as opposed to actual allocations of ₨. 278.6 million.
1971–2000s: Revision and policies After the 1971 war with India which saw the separation of East Pakistan as Bangladesh, the new education policy was announced with the implementation of nationalization program in 1972, by the Pakistan Peoples Party. Under this policy, all two-year colleges were transformed to university status under the state-controlled policy, and privatized universities were nationalized. During this time, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had spent 70% of natural resources on higher education efforts; enrollment in the universities increased to 56%. Prime Minister Bhutto sought integrated social change and economic progress through nationalization. In 1974, the University Grants Commission was officially established by an Act of Parliament.
In 1979, President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's policies announced "The National Education Policy, 1979" (NEP-79) which saw the harmonization of higher education in Pakistan with Islamic concepts and the national ideology. President Zia's policies led to the fundamentalist ideas flaring in the higher education system in the country. In 1992, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced a "National Education Policy 1992" (NEP-92) to streamline the process of higher education. This was followed by the Eighth Five-year Plans launched by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1993 which focused on primary education.
2000s–present: New Era
Prior to the year 2000, different higher education policies, priorities and the need of competition between the political forces in Pakistan led to disturbances in the higher education sector as well as adversely affecting the University Grants Commission's ability. The inadequate financial funding and policy implementation never matched the need of higher education in the country. In 2002, President Pervez Musharraf took the initiative of dissolving the University Grants Commission and establishing a new autonomous organisation which was completely independent of the Federal Ministry of Education – the Higher Education Commission. The Chairman of the Higher Education Commission was given the status of a Federal Minister, while its Executive Director was given the status of a Federal Secretary.
President Musharraf invited scientist and chemist Atta-ur-Rahman, who was Federal Minister of Science and Technology, to be its first chair, and immediately passed the Presidential Ordinance on 11 September 2002 to establish the Higher Education Commission. Over several years, the commission implemented its program of enhancing access, improving quality, and increased relevance of higher education to the needs and requirement of Pakistan. The reforms carried out in science and higher education during 2000 to 2008 have been applauded by international observers and he was called "a force of nature" in an article published in Nature. As a result of reforms introduced by Atta-ur-Rahman, sector 4 Pakistani universities became ranked among the top 300, 400 and 500 universities of the world under the Times Higher Education (UK) rankings of 2008.
In an analysis of scientific research productivity of Pakistan, in comparison to Brazil, Russia, India, and China ("BRIC" countries), Thomson Reuters has applauded the developments that have taken place as a result of the reforms, since Pakistan has emerged as the country with the highest increase in the percentage of highly cited papers in comparison to the BRIC countries. To facilitate distance education and to promote information technology, a number of facilitating measures were taken by Atta-ur-Rahman. As of 2020, Pakistan has 85% teledensity with 183 million cellular, 98 million 3G/4G and 101 million broadband subscribers, due to the foundations laid by Atta-ur-Rahman of the IT and telecom industry during 2000–2008. The situation in the higher education sector deteriorated in the subsequent decade with the rankings of all universities slipping badly. Javaid Laghari was the second chairman from 2009 to 2013 who tried to continue the higher education reforms despite serious cuts in funding and opposition by the government. He is known for his stand on exposing the fake degrees of many parliamentarians, including Ministers, in spite of pressure by the government.
A task force was formed on "Technology Driven Knowledge Economy" that is chaired by the Prime Minister Imran Khan and has Atta-ur-Rahman as its Vice Chairman. The group has several Federal Ministers as members including the Federal Minister of Finance, Federal Minister of Planning, Federal Minister of Education, Federal Minister of IT/Telecom, Federal Minister of Science & Technology and chairman Higher Education Commission. The task force has the mandate to promote research in technology fields and to initiate projects that can use science and technology for sustainable and equitable socio-economic development. Another task force of Prime Minister on science & technology has been formed with Atta-ur-Rahman as its chairman. As a result of the efforts of the Task Forces headed by Atta-ur-Rahman, the development budget of the Federal Ministry of Science and technology has been enhanced by over 600%, allowing a number of new projects to be undertaken.
Pakistan's first foreign engineering university (Pak Austria Fachhochschule) was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in 2020. It incorporates a hybrid model involving a Fachhochschule half and a postgraduate research half, with a central technology park for promotion of innovations. There are eight foreign universities collaborating (three Austrian and five Chinese) to train the faculty, control quality, and eventually offer their degrees to selected students. It is located in Haripur, Hazara Division, about 50 miles from Islamabad. Similar foreign engineering universities are in the process of being established in Sialkot, and in lands behind Prime Minister House, Islamabad.
Programs and projects The commission's main programs are following:
Degree Attestation Entry Test Council Faculty development Curriculum revision Higher education infrastructure development Indigenous scholarships Foreign scholarships Patent filing support Conference travel grants Increase industry and university research collaboration Developing new technology parks Laptop Scheme
In May 2026, HEC introduced an online and paperless degree attestation system through its e-Services Portal. Under the system, applicants may submit attestation requests online, while e-attestation certificates are issued digitally and can be verified online.
Governance Active and listed Division(s):
The commission is governed and chaired by the appointed chairman who is assisted by the secretaries of federal education and professional training and science and technology. The chairman and secretaries are assisted by the additional members who are appointed from the four provinces as well as university vice-chancellors. Other members are included from state and private-sector and executive director.
The chairman is appointed by the Prime Minister for a four-year term based upon the requests and recommendations sent by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training. According to commission's ordinance, the Prime Minister is the controlling authority and the shortlisted names are to be forwarded to Him for the final say.
The Prime Minister reserves the right to re-appoint or give extension to the designated chairman. Though the executive director is the administrative head of the commission, almost every decision in the commission is taken with the consent of the chairman.
Finance and budget Science is a lucrative profession in Pakistan and the official science policy in Pakistan plays a major role in the development of budget in the country for fiscal years. Since revitalized in 2002, the commission's budget increased up to ~340.2% in terms of fiscal period of 2001–06. Around 50%–70% of federal budget is set for the development on science and higher education, particularly distributed to the commission, highest in the financial history of Pakistan.