Parliamentary secretary for the Federal Education and Professional Training Division, Rabia Naseem Farooqi, told the National Assembly on Thursday that HEC internship charges for completed placements will now be billed against one credit hour instead of three, after a federal directive aimed at easing students’ costs.
She was responding to a Calling Attention Notice about claims that Higher Education Commission (HEC)–recognised universities lacked internship opportunities. Farooqi said every one of Pakistan’s 282 universities offers internships, and that no university runs without such a programme. About two-thirds of the institutions are in the public sector and about one-third are private.
What the revised fee rule requires
Farooqi said the federal ministry had, about a month earlier, sent a letter to all universities through the HEC directing them to reduce the financial burden on students. Under the revised arrangement, students who complete internships are charged for only one credit hour rather than three.
Internships themselves still carry three academic credit hours on transcripts. The change concerns how much of that credit load is used as the basis for charges, not whether the placement counts toward a degree.
How placements are organised
She said internships are arranged by academic field. Computer science students are placed in software houses, agriculture students at farms, and mechanical engineering students at sites run by the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), the state-owned oil and gas exploration firm.
A mandatory two-month internship falls in the sixth semester. Farooqi said monitoring of the internship policy had been tightened so that more students get opportunities and are not charged extra fees beyond the revised rule.
Questions raised in the Assembly
MNA Alia Kamran asked whether available internships were enough as the number of universities grows. She also alleged, without naming the institution, that a university had charged students Rs25,000 for internships.
Farooqi pointed to the ministry’s letter and the one-credit-hour charging rule as the response to that pressure on households. She assured lawmakers that details of the monitoring teams would be shared with the House.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Sarkar ne universities ko kaha hai ke internship ke charges teen credit hours ki jagah ab sirf ek credit hour ke hisaab se lain. Pakistan ki 282 universities mein internship programmes hain, aur sixth semester mein do mahine ki internship zaroori hai. Is se students aur un ke gharwalon par fees ka bojh kam hone ka irada hai. Assembly mein yeh bhi kaha gaya ke monitoring tez ki gayi hai taake extra fees na li jaye.
