ISLAMABAD:
The Senate Standing Committee on Federal Education and Vocational Training on Tuesday ordered relevant authorities to expedite the investigation into the alleged leak of Cambridge A-Level exams and ensure that the matter is resolved by July 21.
The panel, chaired by Senator Bushra Anjum Butt, expressed concern over the issue during its meeting held in Parliament.
In May, Cambridge International Education (CIE) confirmed the leak of an AS level Mathematics exam and announced the postponement of another Mathematics exam.
Students who sat for an AS level maths assignment claimed that the assignment they received was identical to a solved assignment they had found on social media just a day earlier.
Previously, the AS Level Mathematics exam (9709/12), taken on April 29, was also subject to similar claims.
During the meeting, the Inter-Board Chairmen’s Committee (IBCC) informed the committee that it had shared the available evidence with Cambridge Assessment and the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) for investigation and appropriate action.
The president ordered letters to be sent to the relevant authorities, urging them to expedite the investigation and ensure that the matter is resolved by July 21.
The committee was briefed on the issue of certification of degrees for graduates from unauthorized campuses of PIMSAT, University of South Asia, Lahore, and NICE, Karachi.
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) reported at the meeting that it had approved the consideration of 4,383 of around 6,000 affected students for degree certification.
The meeting was informed that an online service had been introduced to streamline the degree certification process, while the President directed the relevant authorities to submit a detailed report in the next meeting on the number of degrees accredited through the system.
The committee also deliberated on the long-pending issue of non-certification of degrees awarded by Al-Khair University.
The meeting was further informed that the commission had planned to conduct a test before verifying the degrees of the students, but the test is yet to be held.
The panel directed HEC to resolve the issue by adopting the policy applied earlier in the case of Global University, Lahore, and submit a comprehensive report within 10-15 days.
Expressing serious concern over the prolonged delay, the Chairman observed that HEC had shown negligence in resolving the matter for several years.
He said it would be unreasonable to require people who completed their studies years ago to sit an exam at this stage.
The body emphasized the need for an expeditious and fair resolution of the problem to safeguard the academic and professional interests of the affected students.
The HEC also informed the committee about its plagiarism policy, stating that the permissible level of plagiarism varies across disciplines, with the maximum permissible limit set at 19 per cent. Additionally, he informed the committee that Turnitin software is used to detect and evaluate plagiarism in academic research.
