FAISALABAD: Hundreds of students of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad’s intermediate pre-agriculture programme claim to have been rudely awakened to non-recognition of their degree.

The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Faisalabad, has refused to recognise the six-year degree programme that was re-launched in 2009 when UAF Vice-Chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmed assumed the charge.

Hundreds of students have spent years on the programme which, they learnt, is neither registered with the Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) nor is it recognised by any other competent authority.

Sources said the students had not been informed at the time of the admission that the degree was not approved by the IBCC. The university has enrolled seven batches of students since 2009 and the graduates are neither eligible for government jobs nor can they opt for foreign scholarships.

The Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council (PVMC) has also refused to register those DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) graduates who have FSc pre-agriculture degree of the UAF, sources said.

Speaking to this correspondent, a student claimed that he wanted to go abroad but the degree was not acceptable anywhere as the embassies were refusing to accept it as a valid degree. “We have only one option, that is, to continue education at the UAF,” he said.

He said the students had tried many times to take up the issue with the vice chancellor but he keeps avoiding a meeting. Another student said they had also contacted the prime minister’s public affairs and grievances wing with a request to look into the issue and ensure approval of the degree.

He said the IBCC had refused to accept the degree citing that the university is not offering Urdu as a subject. He said the university administration instead of following the IBCC instructions, kept the issue on the back burner.

He said around 2,500 students have been left in the lurch and even the HEC had refused to attest the applications of those who had applied for international scholarships.

An academic blamed the university administration for failing to have the degree recognised and assuring the students that their genuine demand would be fulfilled.

UAF VC Dr Iqrar Ahmed said the UAF was being run by an act of parliament which empowers the university to offer degrees and certificates and the IBCC, which came into being in 1995 through an executive order, could not overrule an act.

“Still, we have taken the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the IBCC on board and the issue will be solved,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2016