‘Faulty’ HEC degree portal causes students to suffer

Hundreds of students, especially in Karachi, are facing problems in getting their degrees attested due to the faulty online system of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

However, the HEC said the change of its portal had caused a “little delay” in the attestation of degrees in Karachi.

The HEC’s new initiative made hundreds of students suffer when it tried to upgrade its online portal for submission of educational documents for attestation. About a month ago, the students had to fill an online form at http//das.hec.gov.pk before taking their documents and photocopies along with the payment slip to the HEC offices in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta for attestation.

However, the HEC uploaded a new portal for the attestation of documents which caused problems. The students said the new portal was nothing but a nuisance. They said it seemed the HEC uploaded the portal without even testing and plugging its loopholes. As a result, hundreds of students had to rush to the regional offices of the HEC with their complaints.

A student from Karachi told Dawn that he got his original documents and their photocopies attested by the HEC about a month ago through the old online portal.

But when he tried to get some more photocopies attested by the HEC about 10 days ago, he found that the portal had been changed.

“The new portal is full of flaws. It gives you four options: attest new degree, duplicate attestation, supplementary attestation and update an attested degree.

“As my original documents were already attested, I opted for the supplementary attestation which is meant for photocopies. When I was clicking the link, it stated: ‘Dear applicant we regret to inform you that you are not eligible to apply for degree attestation due to following reasons: At least one attested degree is required.’”

He said he then tried the first option: attest new degree. But the portal gave a grand total of zero rupees and without the option of taking a printout of the form.

Another student said: “I wasted two days trying to fill the online form at the new portal which did not work. I finally decided to reach the HEC regional office in Karachi on April 24 where I found scores of other students with the same complaint,” he added.

He said HEC assistant director Syed Afaq asked the students to fill their forms on his laptop. “Mr Afaq made all of us fill the forms on the old portal.” The student said he had to spend hours to fill the forms as there was only one laptop for scores of students.

When contacted, HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said a few days ago they had changed the portal for making the degree attestation process more transparent.

“Yes, there are some issues at the Karachi centre, where there are 250 degrees lying pending. But the issue will be resolved in two days. There is no fault rather students are facing problems while handling the new portal,” he said.

Korean speech contest held at Numl

The first Islamabad King Sejong Institute (IKSI) Korean language speech contest was held at the National University of Modern Languages (Numl) on Wednesday.

Director King Sejong Institute and the head of the department of Korean language Dr Atif Faraz was the chief guest while faculty members of the institute also attended the ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief guest appreciated the students and the faculty and staff of the institute for their hard work in organising the contest.

Five students took part in the speech contest and Sher Jung won the first prize.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2017