The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is overhauling its degree verification process, mandating that universities clear student records through its online portal within a strict timeframe or face financial penalties. Under the new guidelines, universities are now required to verify degree authenticity within 15 days of a request.
The move aims to eliminate the months-long backlogs that have frustrated graduates applying for jobs, scholarships, and foreign visas. HEC officials confirmed that performance in this digital portal will now be a key metric for institutional funding. Universities failing to meet the two-week turnaround will see their performance-based grants docked, a sharp departure from the previous system where administrative delays carried little consequence for campus leadership.
“Students have been the victims of bureaucratic inertia for too long,” an HEC official familiar with the policy told reporters. “If a university holds the data, they have the responsibility to verify it. We aren’t asking for anything unreasonable just efficiency.
” The backlog has been a persistent headache for thousands of alumni. Many have reported waiting up to six months for simple verification, often missing out on international opportunities because their documentation remained trapped in campus record rooms.
University administrators have long blamed understaffing and outdated manual record-keeping for the delays.
However, the HEC’s latest directive puts the onus on these institutions to digitize their archives. The commission has offered technical support for the integration, but the mandate is clear: the era of paper-based excuses is over. For students, the change is a long-overdue shift.
For university registrars, it is a high-pressure deadline that could cost their institutions millions if they don’t modernize their systems by the next audit cycle.
The policy takes effect immediately, with the HEC planning to publish a quarterly “verification report card” highlighting which universities are meeting the 15-day threshold and which are lagging behind.
