Opinion April 21, 2021 The writer is an independent education researcher and consultant. She has a PhD in Education from Michigan State University. Public debates on technical issues which ought to be argued with facts quickly tend to become politicized and circle around personalities instead, be it infrastructure development, transportation systems, education. The ongoing debate about the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) policy decisions in recent years is much the same. A lot of the criticism lobbed at the former chairperson of the HEC centers on two significant initiatives. First, is the reclassification of legacy two-year bachelor’s programmes as ‘Associate Bachelors’ degrees. Only four-year programmes will now qualify for the title of BA/ BSc bachelor’s degrees. This step was much needed because until recently a variety of two- three- and four-year programs all qualified as BA/ BSc degrees. Figuring out how much training and education their degree holder received required a more detailed investigation.