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Following a thorough review, UK NARIC has changed its comparability for Pakistani four-year Bachelor degrees, awarded from 2016 onward. The new published comparability is British Bachelor degree standard.

Up until now, UK NARIC has assessed them as comparable to British Bachelor (Ordinary) degree standard.

The Higher Education Committee (HEC) in Pakistan has implemented reforms which have allowed us to evolve our view on quality assurance of the revised Bachelor degrees in Pakistan.

The most recent was the development of the National Qualification Framework of Pakistan (PQF), which was officially adopted in 2016.

The HEC has also overseen the complete transfer to four-year Bachelor programmes from the traditional two- and three-year programmes for all recognised public and private universities.

This has led to the phasing out of the two-year Bachelor degrees from 2018 and the 2+2 Bachelor + Master’s system from 2020.

These changes have given UK NARIC reassurance in assessing Bachelor degrees from Pakistan as comparable to UK Bachelor degree standard. A number of UK institutions have already been treating Pakistani Bachelor degrees in this way; others not. However, the revised UK NARIC evaluation should help to give greater confidence to all institutions in their decision-making about Pakistani Bachelor candidates.

This is a positive change for recruiters. Pakistan is potentially an important and big recruitment market, with many students on Bachelor degree programmes. The new comparability helps to support decision-making in recruitment for direct entry to postgraduate cycles.