KARACHI: While Karachi University (KU) has withdrawn its controversial notification on the university’s MPhil-leading-to-PhD programme, a number of research students are uncertain about their future as a clear university policy on it is still awaited, it emerged on Friday.

The trouble started when the university issued a notification on March 10 announcing new rules and regulations for MPhil-leading-to-PhD programme, sources said.

According to the notification of KU’s Board of Advanced Studies and Research (BASR), students who had been allowed conversion of their MPhil to PhD programme would be awarded an MPhil degree only if they had completed 30 credit hours of coursework.

Bureaucratic wrangling between HEC and KU puts students in no man’s land

The BASR resolved to request the Higher Education Commission “to verify the degree of those students who were enrolled between 2012 and 2016 and already awarded their PhD degree”.

The board decided to request the HEC to retain indigenous scholarships of KU students.

Over a month later the university announced that only MPhil degree holders were eligible to appear in PhD admissions. It notified on April 18 that an admission test policy for the students, who had either completed 30 credit hours of their coursework or their conversion from MPhil-leading-to-PhD had been finalised, would be announced within 15 days.

Confusion, frustration

While the university policy on MPhil-leading-to-PhD programme was awaited, the university withdrew its March notification albeit after causing much confusion among students.

Speaking to Dawn on the condition of anonymity, some of the students vented their anger and frustration over the sudden change in the university’s policy.

“After studying hard for a doctorate degree for over five years, we have been informed by the university administration that we will get an MPhil degree after completing coursework of 30 credit hours instead of 24 credit hours for which we initially got registered,” said a student enrolled in 2012 programme while calling the change in policy “highly unfair”.

According to her, some departments have introduced new classes for the completion of 30 credit hours of coursework following the issuance of the notification in March. “While this process was continuing, the university announced last month that only MPhil degree holders are eligible for PhD programme. Students like me can’t apply for PhD programme as our coursework hasn’t been completed yet.”

Many students perturbed over the situation questioned why the university failed to inform them in advance about the change in policy. “It’s a fraud I would say. Many of us have already submitted our PhD thesis. Even if the university inducts us in the PhD programme this year, it would be a joke getting a doctorate degree the next year; the degree will lose its credibility,” another student remarked.

The university has been running this programme for quite some time giving option to MPhil students to convert their studies into a PhD programme. Initially, the programme like other universities lacked coursework but gradually coursework was made a compulsory part of research on the intervention of the HEC.

HEC, KU far apart

Upon contact, Prof Jamil Kazmi, a senior KU teacher who has been coordinating with the HEC on part of the university on the issue, said that the matter would be sorted out next week when an HEC team was due to meet university officials.

“The university hasn’t received any warning in writing from the HEC on the MPhil/PhD programme, though there has been some discussion. The HEC had asked for some data that we have submitted a week ago,” he said, while fully supporting students’ reservations.

About the withdrawal of the notification, Prof Kazmi said: “It was the result of some misunderstanding. A number of universities are running an MPhil-leading-to-PhD programme, besides the HEC itself offers scholarships for MPhil-leading-to-PhD programme. The confusion, I believe, occurred when the HEC removed the names of senior PhD research supervisors from its web portal who didn’t have an MPhil degree. Many KU teachers including myself, whose names were removed from the list, have not been intimated.”

He criticised frequent changes in HEC policies and said that KU would insist on continuing with its MPhil-leading-to-PhD programme. The HEC, he said, had raised objections and stopped verification of some PhD degrees.

HEC chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said the HEC policy on MPhil/PhD programme came in 2010 with consensus of all universities. “This policy came after the commission received complaints from students who were unable to complete their PhD and, after spending three to four years, had nothing to show for the work done.

“The HEC directed universities to ensure completion of MPhil so that students would have at least one degree in their hand. This exit strategy was provided with national consensus and also facilitated students,” he explained.

According to the HEC chairman, the universities neither had a policy for coursework nor systematic approach to undertake these studies per international practices before the HEC’s establishment.

“In 2014, the KU led by Prof Mohammad Qaiser agreed that the university would introduce this policy but this didn’t happen. Recently, I came to know a number of inconsistencies in the programme being followed at KU and I asked the incumbent vice chancellor to hold a consultative meeting to sort out these issues,” said Dr Ahmed.

According to him, the policy is mandatory for all varsities in the country. “It’s [regrettable] that teachers have no qualms when their salaries are raised but they do have a problem when it’s a matter of bringing quality and excellence in the academic field,” he said.

The HEC, he added, didn’t bring the policy overnight and it was in place for seven years.

On stoppage of degree verification, he clarified that it might be some individual cases violating university rules and regulations.

The HEC web portal was hacked and being set up after re-verification of data, he added.

When asked about the information on some websites offering HEC scholarships for an MPhil-leading-to-PhD programme, Dr Ahmed said that the information was old.

According to the HEC sources, the data KU has sent is incomplete and the quality assurance team will pay a visit only after reviewing complete data.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2017