HEC finalizes curriculum for BS Chemistry
By Hina Kiyani

ISLAMABAD—The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has finalized the curriculum for BS (four-year) in Chemistry in a recent meeting of the National Curriculum Review Committee (NCRC) held at HEC Regional Centre, Lahore.
During the last five years, curricula of 97 disciplines at the graduate level have been reviewed and revised. A standardized format of studies for four-year integrated curricula for Bachelor’s Degree approved by the National Curriculum Review Committee includes a total number of 124-136 credit hours, semester duration of 16-18 weeks, which translate into 8 semesters with 4-6 courses per semester. The meeting finalized the Chemistry curriculum in line with general guidelines for the generic unified framework and template for BS (four-year) programme and course outlines, which have been developed by the experts. Prof. Dr. Fahim uddin, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Karachi presided over the meeting. After a comprehensive discussion, the participants laid out courses and scheme of the BS programme being taught at all public sector universities.
The course outlines prepared by the sub-committees were reviewed, finalized and approved in the meeting. The concerned sub-committees were advised to send course contents to respective members and incorporate the minor changes proposed by the members.
They were further asked to submit final modules of course contents to NCRC as soon as possible. The Committee appointed Prof. Dr. Syed Ishrat Ali and Prof. Dr. Muhammad Arif as new heads of the sub-committees for Applied Chemistry and Inorganic Chemistry, respectively.
The experts who attended this special meeting included Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shahid Ansari, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Prof. Dr. Sher Khan Sadozai, Gomal University, D. I. Khan, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Kaleem Tahir, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Prof. Dr. Humayun Pervez, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Prof. Dr. Mohammad Arfan, University of Peshawar, Prof. Dr. Ahmad Saeed, Gomal University, D. I. Khan, Prof. Dr. Syed Ishrat Ali, University of Karachi, Dr. Zafar Iqbal Zafar, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Prof. Dr. Jamil Anwar, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Arif, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Aslam Shad, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Prof. Dr. Abdul Shakoor Qureshi, University of Sindh, Jamshoro and Prof. Dr. Mohammad Saeed Iqbal, Government College University, Lahore.