The Higher Education Commission’s new dual degree policy has opened doors to all that were previously only available to the wealthy.
Under the policy, the National Institute of Technology (NIT) has become the first Pakistani university to register dual, double and joint degree programmes with an American university under a landmark new government policy.
The HEC recently issued its Policy on Dual, Double and Joint Degree Programmes 2026. For the first time, this policy creates a proper legal and academic framework under which Pakistani universities can formally offer degrees in partnership with foreign universities. Students completing such programmes would earn qualifications recognised both in Pakistan and internationally. Before any university can enrol students in such a programme, it must receive a No-Objection Certificate from the HEC.
NIT is now preparing to be the first institution in the country to file for that certificate – for its programmes run in partnership with Arizona State University in the United States. So why does NIT’s partnership with Arizona State University matter so much?
Experts say the answer lies in what ASU actually is. It has been ranked the most innovative university in the United States for ten years in a row by US News and World Report, placing it ahead of MIT, Stanford and Harvard on that specific measure. It sits in the top one percent of universities worldwide, ranks fourth globally for graduate employability, and has received over one billion dollars in funding under America’s CHIPS Act to build semiconductor research facilities. More than 400 Pakistani students are already enrolled at ASU today.
Under the HEC’s new policy, a Pakistani university can only offer joint degree programmes if its foreign partner meets strict quality standards – either listed in the UNESCO World Higher Education Database or ranked among the top 1,000 universities in major global rankings. Arizona State University meets these standards many times over. No other Pakistani university currently has a formal binding partnership with an American institution of this calibre, which means NIT stands alone in its ability to deliver these pathways from the very start.
NIT founder and chancellor Muhammad Shahzeb described the new policy as a turning point for Pakistani families. He said that for decades, parents had faced an impossible choice – either spend a lifetime’s savings to send a child abroad for a foreign degree, or give up on that dream altogether. The HEC’s 2026 policy, he said, ends that impossible choice. He also pushed back against the idea that Pakistan should simply copy foreign education models. Pakistan has its own identity, its own culture and its own talent, he said. What it needs is a genuine connection to global standards – and that is what NIT aims to provide.
For ordinary Pakistani families, the message is simple. If this initiative moves forward as planned, a student in Lahore, Karachi or Peshawar could soon earn a degree jointly awarded by a Pakistani and an American university, without boarding a single flight, without draining family savings and without leaving behind the people they love.
NIT intends to complete its HEC registration and begin offering these regulated degree pathways to students as soon as the formal approval process is complete.