KARACHI, Dec 11: The admission committee of the University of Karachi on Wednesday issued a merit list of 3,919 candidates for admission to honours and B. Pharmacy classes in various departments of the university.

In view of an increase in the number of applicants this year, the university has decided to give admission in excess of the installed capacity. The admission committee, with the approval of the vice-chancellor, has added about 1,300 names to the merit list, which was originally supposed to include names of 2,628 students, said chairman of the admission committee, Prof M. Sajideen.

Since admissions to government-run professional educational institutions have already been completed, students found no choice but to apply at the university for admission to higher classes, he said, adding that “being a public sector university we have to look after theinterests of the masses and that’s why authorities approved the increase in the number of seats to facilitate the students.”

As many as 7,200 candidates had applied for admissions to honours classes in the faculties of Science, Arts, Pharmacy and Islamic Studies for the academic session 2003. Last year about 6,000 students had applied for admissions.

Claims or objections on the merit list would be received between Dec 16 and Dec 19. The students should deposit the required fee along with documents during the same period from 9.30am to 1pm, at counters set up at the main entrance of the university.

Prof Sajideen said that candidates having objections on the provisional list could file claims on the forms available at the UBL counter at the silver jubilee gate on a payment of Rs200.

According to a source, an increase of 20 per cent in the number of seats was made at the departments where practical teaching was not required. The number of seats has also been increased by about 10 to 15 per cent in various science departments.

All admissions in the list are provisional and subject to verification of eligibility and documents, including equivalence and original migration certificates. Admissions obtained on forged documents or information shall be cancelled and no documents shall be returned nor the fee would be refunded, the admission committee officials said.

The university issued a separate list of candidates having passed the prerequisite examinations prior to 1998. The applicants have been found provisionally suitable for admission to 12 departments — Arabic, Bengali, Economics, General History, Islamic History, Islamic Learning, Persian, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology and Urdu.

The university had offered admissions on merit under three categories: category “K” consisting of applicants who passed the prerequisite examinations from educational institutions in Karachi; category “S” of those applicants who passed the required examinations from institutions outside Karachi but in Sindh province, and category “P” comprising applicants having passed the prerequisite examinations from institutions outside Sindh.

Candidates were allowed to give a maximum of five choices of departments in order of preference while applying for admissions. The closing percentages for admission to various departments in the “K” category remained as under:

Applied Chemistry (DAE) - 63.06, Applied Chemistry - 72.82, Arabic - 52, Biochemistry - 70.91, Bengali - 46.36, Botany - 60.09, Biotechnology - 73.64, Chemistry (DAE) - 70.61, Chemistry - 69.64, Economics (Arts) - 59.27, Economics (Science) - 63, Education (DAE) - 72.05, Education - 59.18, English - 47.91, Food Science (Bio) - 80.09, Food Science (Maths) - 75.45, Geology - 61.91, Geography (Arts) - 47.55, Geography (pre-eng) - 56.45, Geography (Bio) - 57.91, General History (merit) - 51.36, General History (DAE) - 67.41, General History (GS) - 47.73, Islamic History - 45.09, Islamic Learning (Com) 45, Islamic Learning - 50.73, Islamic Learning (Science) - 53.27, Mathematics - 65.45, Microbiology - 71.55, Mass Communication - 67.45, Persian - 45.09, Pharmacy - 74.55, Philosophy - 49.09, Physics (DAE) - 70.84, Physics - 66.09, Physiology - 67.36, Political Science (Arts) 51.82, Political Science (Science) - 62.45, Psychology - (Bio/Com) - 69.18, Psychology (Arts) - 53.36, Sociology (Arts) - 51.45, Sociology (Com) - 56.82, Sociology (Science) - 60.73, Sindhi - 46.18, Statistics - 45.82, Statistics (DAE) - 69.61, Social Work (Bio) - 58.55, Social Works (Arts) - 52.36, Urdu - 45.45, and Zoology - 62.91.

MASTER’S ADMISSION: The University of Karachi has announced that all such candidates whose names had appeared in the Master’s admission list and who failed to submit the admission fees so far could do so again on Dec 14.