LAHORE, Aug 20: The Punjab University has revised its admission policy and decided to abolish entrance tests and quotas in all its departments, colleges and institutes.

For the purpose of determining the merit, 15 per cent of the marks obtained by candidates who have graduated under an internal assessment system would be deducted.

The university had earlier advertised an admission policy for its postgraduate classes which reserved 90 per cent of the merit seats for its own graduates. It had announced that there would be no entrance tests for PU graduates, but graduates of other institutions would be required to take a qualifying test.

The graduates of autonomous colleges had been protesting against the discriminatory policy. They had also made representations before the Punjab governor and sought his intervention.

The governor’s secretariat had then written a letter to the Punjab University saying the governor wanted it to take the lead to promote merit. He was of the view that Regulation 24 (allowing discrimination against non-PU graduates) should be amended to allow open competition. “The university, however, should be at liberty to determine the parameters of inter se merit of competing candidates,” the governor had added.

The PU admissions committee consequently revised the policy and allowed admissions on ‘open merit.’ In order to protect the interests and rights of PU graduates, it decided to multiply by 0.85 the marks obtained by a candidate who studied in an internal assessment system. The decision still discriminates against graduates of Government College, Lahore, Lahore College for Women, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore School of Economics and various university departments offering undergraduate degree and honours programmes.

Committee’s chairman Prof Dr Dil Muhammad Malik said it expected the revision to have little impact on a majority of departments. “In a couple of departments, a majority of students from the autonomous colleges are expected to get admissions,” he said.

According to the PU admission schedule, various departments, colleges and institutes of the university will start selling the admission forms and prospectuses between Sept 2 and Sept 10. The completed admission forms would be accepted till Sept 10. The first merit list will be put up on Sept 20. The candidates whose names appear in the list will be allowed to deposit the dues till Sept 24. The second list will be put up on Sept 27 and dues received by Sept 30. The third list will be displayed on Oct 2 and dues received by Oct 4. The fourth and final list will be displayed on Oct 7 and fees received till Oct 9.

The classes will start soon after the general elections.