HEC mandates 'inclusion of AI as compulsory subject' in all degree programmes
Sources says undergraduate and postgraduate programmes should offer compulsory course of three credit hours
February 19, 2026
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has issued directives for the inclusion of artificial intelligence (AI) as a mandatory subject in all degree programmes, the sources told Geo News on Thursday.
"Undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes should offer a compulsory course of three credit hours on AI," said the HEC.
The authority added that universities should offer this course as an elective subject, an interdisciplinary course or as a supporting subject within respective degree programmes.
HEC's directives come days after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, while addressing the inauguration ceremony of Indus AI Week 2026 in Islamabad, announced that Pakistan will invest $1 billion in artificial intelligence by 2030 to build a national AI ecosystem.
Underscoring that an AI curriculum would be introduced in all federally run schools as well as in educational institutions across Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and remote parts of Balochistan to prepare young people for leadership roles in the digital economy, PM Shehbaz further said that the government will provide 1,000 fully funded PhD scholarships in artificial intelligence would be awarded to students from across the country by 2030 to develop world-class research capacity and fully equipped national research centres.
In addition to this, he added, a nationwide programme would be launched to train one million non-IT professionals in AI skills, enabling them to improve productivity and livelihoods.
Meanwhile, expanding on the areas of focus of AI deployment, the premier said that it would target agriculture, mines and minerals, and youth empowerment.
Addressing concerns within the IT industry, he said startups and IT professionals should not fear the rapid changes brought by artificial intelligence, assuring that government programmes would help transform IT technicians into AI experts.
He said these advances would significantly improve agricultural yield, quality and efficiency, and would extend to industry, commerce, trade, innovation by women and other economic sectors.
