HEC Degree Attestation
STUDENTS IN THE COUNTRY are frequently required by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to have their university degrees certified for a variety of reasons. The office charge is Rs7,000 for the attestation of one degree and transcript, and the amount increases to roughly Rs10,000 if a photocopy of the same document is also attested.
A student’s problems do not end here. A student must apply for attestation online on a slow website, and it can take up to four hours to finish the process, which contains various irrelevant inquiries, such as the beginning and end dates of matriculation. Who can recall these exact dates? The years can merely be mentioned, but the website requires dates. I’m curious who the genius was who wanted to collect such worthless data.
The HEC governs universities throughout the country, and the commission must bind all universities to offer only authentic degrees; if any university issues a fraudulent degree or fails to meet requirements, the HEC should act against that university. Why should it make students suffer by subjecting them to the agony of having their degrees certified for a hefty fee? Is it a revenue generator for HEC?
If the HEC judge’s degree attestation is necessary, it should do so at no cost. Alternatively, it can request that institutions post all past students’ records on their websites, eliminating the need for degrees to be confirmed.