Higher Education Commission (HEC)

Higher Education Commission (HEC), previously known as Universities Grants Commission (UGC), is an institution that aims at promoting higher education in Pakistan. In an effort to encourage research oriented education in the country it offers scholarship for Ph. D. to a number of students in different disciplines and subjects. To determine the merit among large number of candidates it arranges test that has been conducted by different organizations over the years. All the candidates belonging to different subjects/disciplines were required to appear in the same test, which was proving disadvantageous for the students belong to non-engineering and/or non-mathematical background and always led to feeling of dissatisfaction among these candidates.

HEC wanted to devise a system that could address this issue but couldn’t succeed as the agencies developing papers for these tests insisted on the same single paper. NTS was given the responsibility to develop and conduct test for HEC in February 2003. After consultation with HEC, test was conducted in Seven different categories including:

- Agri Sciences;
- Veterinary Sciences;
- Bio Sciences;
- Chemistry;
- Pharmacy; and
- Health Science.

Seventh category test called General was developed for the candidates with a background Engineering and/or Physical Sciences. More than 1200 candidates were tested simultaneously in Six different cities namely:

- Islamabad;
- Karachi;
- Hyderabad;
- Quetta;
- Lahore; and
- Peshawar.

NTS provided services including paper development, printing, distribution and logistics, invigilation, marking; and preparation of final list as per in multiple formats. HEC appreciated these efforts and showed satisfaction in NTS’ performance.