RAWALPINDI: The architecture department of the National College of Arts’ (NCA) Rawalpindi campus is no longer accredited by the Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners (PCATP) – a statutory accreditation body.

The development puts the futures of the department’s around 250 students at stake and the college administration does not seem proactive about taking action to have their accreditation restored by the professional regulatory authority.

Accreditation is necessary for the institution to continue its programme, otherwise, students will not be able to become members of the PCATP and will have problems going abroad for further studies.

NCA Rawalpindi Director Nadeem Omar Tarar told Dawn: “We did not receive a formal letter about the discontinuation of the accreditation of the Bachelors Architecture (B.Arch.) programme; we only saw this on their website.”

He claimed that NCA Rawalpindi was not alone, as “PCATP has issued notices to 20 other institutions, including Comsats”. While it is true that many architecture programmes in universities across Pakistan have had their accreditation put on hold for one reason or the other, NCA Rawalpindi’s is the only one to be “discontinued”, with the “B.Arch. programme recommended for closure”.

Mr Tarar said the PCATP inspection system needs improvement, adding that they had not formally replied to NCA’s objections to their decision. He claimed that a PCATP team came to inspect the department, where they spoke to students and then raised certain issues, which were answered through a written reply, sent via NCA Lahore.

NCA Rawalpindi is a sub-campus of the renowned NCA Lahore. Interestingly, the B.Arch. programme there is fully accredited until Dec 31, 2016. Tarar said NCA Lahore would contact the PCATP for the revalidation of their accreditation, since all administrative issues were looked after by the principal in Lahore.

A senior PCATP official told Dawn that students had complained about misbehaviour by their peers at all levels, which had forced some students to leave the department. He said that the issue was taken up with the Rawalpindi campus director, who assured them that the matter would be resolved.

When contacted, PCATP Executive Committee Member Asadullah Varzgani told Dawn that the basic aim of an inspection by professional architects was to examine the standards of education being adopted by institutes.

“In this day and age, professional degree holders should be imparted education as per international requirements, so that when students go abroad for higher education, they earn a good name for the country,” he said.

PCATP Registrar Tahira Sadia Fazli said there were 20 institutes, including NCA Rawalpindi, whose accreditation was either on hold or discontinued.

“It is a warning for an institution to improve their educational standards as per the minimum PCATP requirements for accreditation. This does not entail the permanent closure of the programme since accreditation can be allowed within a month, three months or a year if the school improves its standards and complies,” she clarified.

Talking about the student complaints noted by PCATP, she said that such issues existed at several institutions and the professional body had to take appropriate measures to avoid such practices.

Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Mukhtar Ahmed, who is also a member of NCA’s Board of Governors, was not available for comment.

An HEC spokesperson, however, told Dawn that the commission would not verify degrees from institutions that had their accreditation withdrawn by professional organisations such as the PCATP and Pakistan Medical and Dental Council. He said such bodies usually gave the institute some time to improve their standards, and since the matter involved several institutions, not just NCA, it was premature to say that the B.Arch. programme would be permanently closed.

He said that HEC had been issuing warnings to parents and students every month to keep them abreast of developments in such institutions, so they are not compelled to waste their precious time and money.

“We will not take administrative action against such institutions since it is the duty of the board of governors or the provincial authorities to take punitive action. We have simply conveyed to the people that HEC will not verify the degrees from such [unaccredited] institutions,” he said.

Published in Dawn September 26th, 2016

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