KARACHI: Karachi University (KU) is likely to suffer a loss of over Rs40 million following the Sindh Higher Education Commission’s recent decision to disaffiliate all its medical and dental colleges, it emerged on Wednesday.

The same process would be applicable to the case of Sindh University, according to a provincial government notification issued on Tuesday. The notification directed the relevant medical and dental colleges to affiliate themselves with a medical university in their respective area.

The decision that had the approval of the chief minister, sources said, was taken after a letter of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), which said medical and dental colleges could be affiliated with medical universities only. The decision was stated to have been implemented with immediate effect.

According to sources, the funds generated from the affiliated medical and dental colleges, including those imparting arts, science, law and commerce education, are a major source of income for the KU and the de-affiliation of medical and dental colleges would aggravate the financial crisis of the university.

Currently, seven medical and dental colleges are affiliated with the KU with over 3,000 students while two institutions (Liaquat College of Medicine and Dentistry and Sir Syed Girls Medical College) have already disaffiliated themselves from the university.

The colleges still affiliated with the KU include Karachi Medical and Dental College, Jinnah Medical and Dental College and Altamash Institute of Dental Medicine.

The university collects money from medical and dental colleges on account of enrolment, examination and sports fees.

Senior KU teachers deplored the HEC decision and said it could have been avoided if the university had taken a timely decision and established a medical college in time. “It was sheer negligence on part of the university. We had been urging the administration for many years to establish a medical college but all our suggestions were ignored,” said a teacher, adding that some organisations were also willing to extend financial support in that regard.

Last year, the university administration had announced setting up of a medical college by January this year, apparently under pressure from the PMDC, without doing basic homework required to set up the institution.

The plan, however, did not materialise. The university, it was said, failed to persuade the Kidney Foundation, running an institute for kidney and urological diseases on the campus under an agreement with the university, to establish a medical college at the institute.

Speaking to Dawn, secretary for universities and educational boards Mumtaz Ali Shah said the disaffiliation decision was necessary and timely.

“Earlier, we didn’t have medical universities and there was no option but to link medical and dental colleges with general universities. But now the situation has changed. Medical colleges should be associated with an institution offering professional education of medicine,” he said.

He declined to comment on whether the government would consider compensating the KU and Sindh University following de-affiliation of colleges.

KU registrar Moazzam Ali Khan said the university had not received the relevant notification but officials had only read about it in newspapers. “The matter would be discussed once received in writing,” he said.

On the delay in establishing a medical college, he said the vice chancellor had set up a committee on the matter and the issue was being discussed with different stakeholders. “No decision has been taken yet in this regard, though negotiations are going on. Disaffiliation of colleges would definitely be a huge financial loss for us,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2015

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