Professional Documents
Culture Documents
PAKISTAN
Foundation
HSc / FSc / FA / intermediate certificate
65%+
Description: HSc / FSc / FA – also known locally as the “intermediate” certificate (and FSc streams
sometimes as “pre-medical” or “pre-engineering”).
The Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSc) is equivalent to GCSE if over 50%. Many students instead
take the FSc Diploma of Science / FA Diploma of Arts or Commerce, which is also below ‘A level’ standard. In
both cases students with 65%+ can enter our INTO Foundation programme. Very exceptional FSc science
stream students with excellent grades (90%) might be considered for year one UG entry / INTO Diploma.
Undergraduate
Qualification Entry point % / GPA Refer to INTO Diploma
Note – Only a small number of institutions still offer the 2 year degree, and the 3 year degree is also being
phased out (in preference for a common 4 year hons degree), so these older qualifications should become less
common.
Note - Any 3 year degree transcript will need to be checked because 3 year hons degrees from two prestigious
universities are acceptable for direct entry to Masters (see Postgraduate section below)
There are a good number of ‘A’ level schools in Pakistan; these students will obviously apply direct for UG
entry, and will usually have also obtained GCSE English.
English Language
Excepting students studying in Brit curriculum schools who achieve GCSE English grade C or above, a
recognised English language test result is required in all cases.
Postgraduate:
Qualification Institution 2:1 equivalent 2:2 equivalent Refer to INTO
Grad Diploma
(Finance / Mgt /
Law / MPA)
Foundation for
Advancement of
Science and
Technology (FAST)
National University of
Sciences and 2.7+ 2.3 – 2.7 1.9 – 2.3
Technology (NUST) 60%+ 53 - 60% 43 – 53%
University of
Engineering and
Technology, Karachi
(NED)
Lahore School of
Economics (LSE)
COMSATS Institute of
Information Technology
4 Years Bachelors All other institutions 2.9+ 2.4 – 2.9 2.0 – 2.4
63%+ 56 - 63% 46 – 56%
and 2 year Masters
(or where 2:2
equivalent
insufficient for
programme)
Entry to Masters can only be considered where a student has completed 16 years of education (i.e. 4 years
post-secondary education) leading to an accredited degree. This may be achieved by:
Careful consideration of transcripts may be necessary to ascertain length of degree, so check all years’
transcripts and number of semesters.
Only a small number of universities still offer the 2 year degree, and all 3 year degrees (hons or not) are being
phased out in favour of a common 4 year degree.
A few universities offer one year Masters degrees, but these would be limited to graduates of 3 or 4 year
Bachelors degrees, so applicants should still meet the ‘16 years of education’ rule.
The Pakistani LLB is either a 3-year PG qualification (following a 2-yr Bachelors) or a 5-year first degree.
Students with good grades may be considered for entry onto our LLM. 55% may be sufficient even where a
2:1 equivalency is preferred, as grades of 60%+ are rare in Law.
Entry to MPhil / PhD: Students with strong grades in their Masters (preferably 70% or GPA 3.2+) might be
acceptable for entry to MPhil/PhD, although the student’s capacity to undertake self-directed research should
be carefully considered as Masters dissertations are relatively limited in scope.
MSc / MPhil Engineering degrees are an exception to this, as are considered directly comparable to UK
Masters.
Appendix 1:
A comprehensive list of universities is also given on the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) web
site: http://www.hec.gov.pk/OurInstitutes/Pages/Default.aspx (scroll down)
Appendix 2:
RR Jan 2010