About the report

Findings of a government audit delegation on private universities and Higher Education Institutions (HEIS) in Afghanistan of which a document has been obtained by Daily EtilaatRoz show that the Ministry of Higher Education’s principles has been violated simultaneously with the establishment of private higher education institutions, promotion of most these institutions to private universities and creation and implementation of master’s programs at the universities. According to the findings of the delegation, most of these institutions face serious shortcomings and challenges with the activity of most of them not being compliant with the legal documents and academic criteria.

List of private higher education institutions that are officially registered 

Based on the findings of the delegation relating to the establishment, 68 private HEIs have not been established in accordance with the terms and criteria of legal documents; the branches of 17 of them are illegal; 19 universities and institutes have activated 24 faculties and departments without a legal license; 24 institutions with the obtainment of certification for particular faculties, have added some faculties arbitrarily; 24 institutions have started their activity prior to obtaining the registration certificate for the institution or faculty; 34 institutions do not have appropriate permanent complex compliant with academic criteria; 16 institutions do not have equipped and active laboratory, and 34 institutions do not have auditorium and gymnasium since their establishment.

Similarly, based on the delegation’s findings with respect to the promotion of institutions to private universities, the Ministry of Higher Education has promoted 19 institutions to universities without regard to the results of the first and second rounds of evaluation of PHEIs.

Moreover, the findings reveal that in relation to master’s programs initiation at private universities of Afghanistan, 9 private universities lack the essential criteria and conditions for initiating and implementing master programs and has been certified by MoHE contrary to its principles and regulations. The universities do not have at least four lecturers for their master programs and have not formed a master programs board and committee since their founding.

For detailed information on each of the above cases that have been highlighted in the government’s auditory delegation report, navigate below in a number-by-number order.

Number of higher education institutions and universities in Afghanistan

As per the table published by MoHE, 29 private universities and 100 higher education institutions that have received official registration certificate and their activity is lawful.

Related: list of universities accredited by the ministry of higher education

According to the table, 14 private universities offer 32 master programs with official certification and permission. The delegation findings correspond to the list published by MoHE but the list by the ministry has not specified the master programs of Payam Noor university-Afghanistan Unit with the report saying that it implements 13 programs without official certification.

1. Number of Higher Education Institutions 

See the list here 

2. No appropriate complex for higher education institutions 

Establishing higher education institutions without infrastructural facilities such as suitable permanent complex, active and equipped laboratory and library, auditorium and gymnasium constitute the second part of the delegation’s findings. The findings have revealed that 34 institutions do not have proper and permanent complex in line with academic criteria and are operating in residential, rented or commercial centers which are not appropriate for academic activities.

Tables:  You can Find the Institutions without appropriate building Here 1 | 2

3. Higher Education Institutions without active and equipped laboratory  

As per the findings, 16 institutions do not have an active and equipped laboratory for the fields such as curative medicine, engineering, computer science, and other fields as well as not having proper atmosphere and space for activating laboratories that are academically fit.

Find the list HERE

Furthermore, according to the report, 34 HEIs do not have an auditorium and gymnasium since their establishment but they may be much higher in number since the supervision report of MoHE is not in their working files.

Table:  Here you can find the list of institutions without auditorium and gymnasium.

4. Unlawful branches of 17 higher education institutions 

The report suggests that 17 higher education institutions have built their branches arbitrarily, without obtaining the certificate and against the provisions of legal documents, Also, it shows that these institutions have created their branches and classes in different places with MoHE’s permission, required processing and fulfillment of the conditions.

See the complete list HERE: 1 | 2 |

5. Unlawful Faculties

As per the report findings, 19 universities and HEIs have established 24 faculties and departments without obtaining the official certificate and completing legal proceedings, and are operating unlawfully and arbitrarily. According to academic regulations artilce  9 of private higher education, no institution is allowed to create a department or faculty and graduate students from them. For those who graduate from such faculties, their educational documents have no reliability.

Table: HERE

6. Also, the report has found that 24 education institutions have activated some faculties arbitrarily without certification and attracted students to them after obtaining certificates for specific faculties.

Table: here

Also, the ministry of higher education has issued certificates for 45 higher education institutions for unnecessary fields in contravention of its decisions made on 1393/01/09.

Table of those institutions:  HERE

Also, the report indicates that MoHE, against the 1393/11/28 decree of Presidential Palace on suspension of establishment or expansion of Private HEIs, has issued the certificate to faculties of 33 private institutions. The delegation has found out that these institutions had started their programs and admitted students prior to the decree and without obtaining the certificate to do so and the ministry of higher education has issued the certificate without doing so.

Tables: here first | Second 

24 institutions commencing their activities before obtaining their certificate  

The findings of No. 8 of the report reveals that 24 institutions had started their activity and attracted students before receiving their registration certificate for institutions and/or faculties. This is against the 3rd article of higher education institutions’ principles stipulating that all HEIs should be registered before starting their activity.

Tables : 1 | 2

Promoting private higher education institutions and institutes to private universities

The delegation has also found that in relation to the promotion of higher education institutions to universities there have been problems such as granting promotion to institutions without completing three rounds of graduation at the bachelor’s level; promotion before payment of royalty; unsound and unrealistic evaluation of capacity and academic and infrastructural facilities of the institutions by the committee in-charge; promotion against the decision of Minister’s Council; promotion without regard to the first and second rounds of evaluation; disregard for presidential decree on suspension and non-expansion of higher education institutions; absence of teachers at the department level with at least a master degree; promotion without having permanent suitable complex and required teaching facilities; non-existence of scholarly research centers; absence of active and equipped laboratory; gymnasium, parking lot for vehicles and grasslands.

Promoting 19 institutes to university against the results of 1st and 2nd round evaluation 

Findings in this part show that some higher education institutions have been promoted to private universities without meeting the criteria.

Table of the institutions promoted: Here

Promotion of 14 institutes to universities without paying the royalty  

Findings show that MoHE has promoted 14 institutes to universities without having those institutes paid their royalty. Also, the findings show that while promoting some institutes to universities, the conditions and criteria of the higher education principle have not been adhered to by the concerned committee, and the infrastructural and academic capacity of the institutions have been evaluated unrealistically.

Table: here 

Promotion of 19 institutes to university without having completed three rounds of graduation 

The report also suggests that 19 institutions have been promoted to universities by MoHE without completing three rounds of graduation and legal proceedings while meeting this condition is one of the underlying conditions of the promotion.

Table: HERE

Promotion of 23 institutes without a suitable complex 

The report has revealed that 23 institutions that do not have a suitable permanent and standard complex have been promoted to the university by the ministry of higher education.

List here

The delegation has also found out that 8 institutions have not had a modern and Electronic tools-equipped library, academic research centers and active as well as an equipped laboratory at the time of the promotion, and some of these institutions still lack the central library, laboratory, and research centers.

Check the list here

Moreover, the audit delegation has learned that 11 academic institutions have been promoted to university without an auditorium, gymnasium, vehicle parking, grassland and MoHE had not paid attention to these factors while promoting them. The report had stipulated that not having a permanent suitable complex undermines the effective development of HEIs.

Table showing the details of the above 

Non-existence of permanent lecturers at the departmental level at all universities 

The report, too, suggests that private universities do not have permanent lecturers at the department level with at least a master’s degree while the private HEIs principle has stipulated that these institutions should have five permanent lectures per department at least.

3. Problems with master programs of private universities 

The third part of the delegation’s findings shows that private higher education institutions have been granted permission to conduct master programs without fulfilling the conditions. The curriculum for master programs has not been scrutinized, assessed and processed administratively by MoHE since their commencement and the institutions do not have at least 4 instructors at the doctoral level.

Issuing permission for master programs to 9 academic institutions without meeting the conditions 

The findings suggest that 9 academic institutions that have not met the condition of 3-round graduation; not promoted from institute to university, and have very poor infrastructural and academic facilities have been granted the right to conduct master programs.

The institutions’ list is  HERE.

Non-existence of permanent lecturers for each master program and non-establishment of master board 

As per the report findings, those institutions implementing master programs do not have four lecturers at minimum for each master program and their curriculum has not been assessed and officially processed at the time of the program’s initiation by MoHE.

Admission of roughly 10,000 students beyond the limit set 

In the same way, the findings show that master’s degree-offering universities have, between 1391-1398, admitted 9787 students against mandates of principle and beyond the predefined limit. The postgraduate principle stipulates that no master or Ph.D. program should have more than 30 students and only those institutions can have more than 30 that enjoy required facilities.

Also, those with master programs have attracted and graduated 2687 students in a field other than their specialization between 1391 and 1397. The report says that admitting more students will undermine the quality due to the lack of facilities for more students than what has been set.

Table showing the institutions 

In last, the delegation findings reveal that Payam Noor University- Afghanistan Unit- has implemented 13 master programs without having official permission since 1391, and have admitted 1701 students to these programs. The university declined to respond to the question of Etilaat Roz.

Table: here

Source: EtilaatRoz 

For more information, you can visit the website of EtilaatRoz.