Minutes of the meeting held on November 20 ,2014 on the Data Correction/

Updation of Bachelors/Masters (16 years) through Online System by the

Universities Focal Person
A meeting of Universities focal person with the project implementation/ technical team was held on
November 20, 2014 as to address the issues being faced in Data Validation including correction/
updation of students record through the Online Students Service Portal deployed by HEC for the
purpose. The meeting was chaired by DG (IT)/ Project Director (PMNLS) and the Focal Persons from
various universities attended the meeting through video conference. The project execution/ technical
team also participated in the meeting.

Agenda
1. How to effectively and efficiently manage Students Data correction & updation of Bachelors/
Masters (16 years)
2. Issues being faced by the universities during laptop distribution activities using Online system
Item #1:
The agenda points were discussed at length and after detailed deliberation, appropriate
recommendations were made and decisions were taken.
It was highlighted that the students data was requested in February 2014 from the universities and
accordingly universities have been provided data since then. Moreover, earlier the date of eligibility and
so the Merit List was to be based on students records as of February 2014, however due to delay in
execution, the Steering Committee has changed the date to June 2014. Therefore, there would be a
large number of students who would have progress another semester or year and would have results
available as of June 2014. Similarly, there will be some students who would have already passed out
from the university. Therefore, afresh data of all students studying in Bachelor and Master (16 year)
program is needed in order to generate the Merit List.
The focal persons highlighted the issue and raised their concerns on the large number of students data
that is appearing with the status In Process and requiring the focal persons to review/ validate each
individual record separately. They advised that this practice may be followed in smaller sized universities
but not for large size universities having thousands of students awaiting for the focal person to validate
their records, which is humanly not possible. Moreover, the data validation date is approaching fact and
it will not be practically possible to get all the students updated record within the stipulated time.
DG (IT) explained the three (03) possible approaches to address the issue. First approach is to go as per
plan in which students records are to be validated by the universities focal persons which has already
been annulled by them. Second approach is to recollect the students data from all the universities once
again, but this would require to run through another exercise of compilation of data at the universities
end and sharing the same with HEC for consideration. Third approach is to ask updated information
against few selected field directly from the students who have validated their records. HEC has already

collected mobile number and validated email address from these students, and so such intimation(s) to
students can be easily communicated through both means.
Decision(s):
Focal Persons shared their views on the three approaches and following decisions were taken;
1. Third approach as proposed seemed more appropriate and so should be followed. However, as
far as correctness of information provided by students is concerned, universities always verify
the students credentials at the time of distribution of laptops. In case student has entered
wrong/ incorrect scores or information effecting Merit List, he/ she will be disqualified at the
time of laptop distribution.
2. Students who have already validated their records should be communicated about the
procedure of this approach clearly within the content of email. They should also be warned of
providing only the correct scores/ information of which they have documentary evidence and
they can produce the same at the time of laptop distribution.
3. HECs technical team along with the company engaged for providing Online Students Service
Portal should develop the Online system accordingly in which the status of Validated students
should be changed to Accepted for Merit List once a student successfully provides the
information against the selected fields.
Item #2:
On the issue of challenges being faced by the universities Focal Person(s) during the activity of laptop
distribution over past month or so, the focal persons appreciate the efforts of HEC in making everything
so transparent and visible to students. They also appreciated the introduction of Online system for such
a mega scheme spanning across the country. However, they highlighted the issue being faced on daily
basis because of the large number of complaints from students requiring correction/ updation but
having only one account login given by HEC. Especially for the universities having more than one
campus, a single login account is not sufficient and causing difficulties. Further, during the laptops
distribution activities and on that particular days, though few additional login accounts are provided by
HEC but still the given number of login accounts are not sufficient due to large number of laptops
distribution in a day.
Decision(s):
Realizing the need of providing reasonable number of login accounts and on request of universities
focal persons, following decision(s) were taken;
1. HEC shall provide at least login accounts to each university on permanent basis so that they may
easily handle the large volume of complaints.

2. During the laptop distribution activities, HEC shall provide additional login accounts in
reasonable number so that large number of laptops may be distributed in a day. HEC shall
maintain extra login accounts as to accommodate the requests from the universities.
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Item #3:
Further the focal persons highlighted issue being faced by Students during their record
validation, Verification on the helpdesk.hec.gov.pk portal and logging of multiple tickets against
single students. The scenarios has been discussed in detail with the focal persons and the detail
and decisions are made are as follow.
a. While record validation few students get the message of CNIC duplication Account already
registered in Prime Minister Fee reimbursement scheme. It was explained to the focal
persons that the HEC has deployed a single platform to provide multiple services to the
students under different schemes, so for the system students can be registered once.
Decision(s):
The focal persons has suggested that for PM laptop Scheme user accounts should be kept
separate or the students should which already got validation under PM free reimbursement
scheme should automatically get validation in PM laptop scheme.
HEC Portal management team has been instructed to configure new complete workflow to
implement the any one of the scenario explained as per the applicability and considering the
urgency
b. At the time of issuance laptop multiple tickets has been observed against few users. Focal
Persons has inquired When the student get validation at the time of issuance The focal
persons highlighted the issue of multiple tickets mentioned in students profile and raised
their concerns that students validated tickets are greater than one. What they can do for
multiple validated tickets pertains in students profile.
Decision(s):
Online PMNLS portal team has been advised to investigate the issue and resolve the issue
on priority basis.
c. The Universities focal person has highlighted the issue of backend Excel reports from PM
Laptop portal helpdesk.hec.gov.pk/staff, In which they investigate and print excel report
based on information regarding uploading data, validation, expired, in-process &
incomplete data details.

Decision(s):
It has been explained to the focal persons that at present due the urgency in
execution of the project the reposted are extracted by the IT team and shared with the HEC
focal persons and shared with the university focal person after verification. The Portal team
has been instructed to develop a workflow to facilitate the universities with automated
excel reports. The Portal management contractors has also been requested to publish the
online statistics on portal where universities can see the universities detail.
d. Focal persons of universities has requested to
MS/MPhil & PHD students from 30.11.2014.

extend the date of validation for

Decision(s):
Tt has been explained that the target being assigned by the Prime minister office is very
aggressive and requested official person support to help in communicating their students to
get the validation on time. And communicated that t last date for receiving missing data
from universities was 20.11.2014. After that no data will be uploaded and the already
uploaded data will be expired after a week. And after expiration of validation no data will
be opened for validation. However individual cases request can be checked if submitted
with strong justification and if user was on default due to HEC or focal person before the
expiry date and HE /she has launched a complaint before it.
Item #4:
a. Universities focal person has raised a point of passed out students issue that a lot
of students were worried about the policy regarding passed out students. The Focal
Persons said that students further raised a point that they validated their data before
passing out. DG (IT) has explained that in last steering committee meeting the case has
been presented to committee with the strong recommendation of accommodating the
passed out students. The decision was in favors of students and approval of steering
committee meeting is still awaited.
Decision(s):
When approval of steering committee will be received from PM house then the response
will be conveyed to all the respective universities.
Meeting ended with the vote of thanks to Chair.