November 27, 2006	Monday	Ziqa'ad 5, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 26: Local universities have welcomed the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) move seeking a uniform academic year throughout the country as the freedom enjoyed presently by each university to set its own academic calendar was hurting students’ interest.

Sometimes the conflicting calendars make students lose a whole academic year in waiting to secure admission in the university of their choice.

Most academicians agree that the synchronisation of academic should have been done a lot earlier and blame the delay on the disarray in higher education that has existed at the policy- making level for long.

A local university’s vice-chancellor observed that the Punjab University was the country’s oldest university, having been established in 1882, is yet to streamline its examination system. “It still offers annual as well as semester system to its students,” he told Dawn wondering about the attempt at standardising the academic year in the country.

Universities all over the world offer two intakes every year at a fix time period, so students who miss one intake due to some reason, avail the second one.

Our policy-makers will have to redesign the pre-university level examination system before creating a standard academic year for the universities. Only after announcements of result at BA/BSc level are synchronised can the same be attempted at the university level, faculty members say.

Though provinces have streamlined examination boards at intermediate level, when it comes to university education the initiative has to be at the national level, they say. University teachers agree that a standard academic year for all is desirable doable but think the exercise would take, at the minimum, five years. They suggest that the HEC set up a task force for the purpose.

Dr Mohammad Ishaq, the outgoing president of the Quaid-i- Azam University (QAU) Academic Staff Association (ASA), said it was good to hear that finally HEC had taken up this issue.

However, he considered bringing uniformity in teaching and education standards in the universities throughout the country equally important. A student who wants to shift to another university should have the same level of teaching and course contents there, which unfortunately is not the case at present, he says.

Dr Ishaq suggests that universities should be given a time frame within which they should coordinate their academic years.

Muddassar Mukhtar, a lecturer at the National University of Modern Languages’ Mass Communication department, endorsed the HEC move, saying it would help students go to the university of their choice.