University Internship Charges Cut to One Credit Hour
Students will now be charged for only one credit hour instead of three for mandatory university internships, after the federal ministry directed universities to ease the financial burden on students. The change was reported to the National Assembly on Thursday by Parliamentary Secretary for Federal Education and Professional Training Rabia Naseem Farooqi.
Farooqi told the House that all 282 universities across Pakistan offer internship opportunities, with a mandatory two-month internship during the sixth semester. Around two-thirds of those universities are in the public sector and one-third are privately operated, she said.
She also stated that no university in Pakistan operates without an internship programme. Internships are arranged to match each student’s field of study, with computer science students placed in software houses, agriculture students on farms, and mechanical engineering students at sites run by the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited.
What has changed for students
Until now, internships carried three academic credit hours on student transcripts, and students were charged on that basis. Under the revised arrangement, students completing internships will be charged for only one credit hour instead of three.
The cut follows a letter issued by the federal ministry to all universities through the Higher Education Commission about a month earlier. That letter directed universities to reduce the financial burden on students taking internships.
The change came after a member of the National Assembly, Alia Kamran, questioned whether internship places were keeping pace with the growing number of universities. She alleged, without naming the institution, that one university was charging students Rs25,000 for internships. Farooqi did not confirm that figure, but she pointed to the ministry letter and the new one-credit-hour charge as the response.
For students and parents, the practical effect is direct. A charge tied to one credit hour instead of three lowers the fee for a compulsory part of the degree. The internship itself remains mandatory.
University internship charges and the wider debate
The debate in the House went beyond fees. A member raised the case of engineering graduates in Balochistan, saying around 3,000 engineers in the province were unemployed and asking the parliamentary secretary to identify even one student from Balochistan who had received an internship in the province’s Communications Department.
Farooqi replied that the member should identify any university where internships were not offered and provide student data, so the matter could be taken up with the authorities.
Monitoring has also been tightened, according to Farooqi. The Higher Education Commission runs a monitoring system under which its teams visit universities to check compliance, and that monitoring has been strengthened to make sure more students receive placements and are not charged extra fees. She assured lawmakers that details of the monitoring teams and their procedures would be shared with the House.
The fee change builds on the mandatory internship policy reported earlier this month. University internships were made mandatory across Pakistan under a policy introduced in 2023, with the Higher Education Commission responsible for making sure universities apply it. That policy set the three-credit-hour weight for internships. The new step changes what students pay, not the requirement itself.
What to watch next
Three tests will show whether the change works in practice. The first is the bill itself. Students should see the lower charge on their fee statements for the next internship cycle, and any university still charging for three credit hours would be going against the ministry direction.
The second test is monitoring. Farooqi promised the House details of the monitoring teams, and those details will show whether visits and checks are real or only on paper. The third test is access. A cheaper internship helps only if places exist, and the Balochistan exchange shows that availability, not just cost, remains a live concern for graduates.
Sindh has moved on a parallel track for graduates, with a Sindh internship programme for graduates due to start in November. Punjab is also expanding access, through a school monitoring app covering 60,015 schools, 1,100 extra nursing seats and a new university in Mandi Bahauddin.
How much will students now be charged for internships?
Students completing internships will be charged for only one credit hour instead of three, under the revised arrangement reported to the National Assembly.
