SARGODHA: The University of Sargodha has stopped the process of issuing transcripts to students after non-payment of dues by the Lahore sub-campus.

Other sub-campuses established under the public-private partnership (PPP) have cleared their outstanding dues.

UoS sources said after final communication on July 12 for non-compliance in financial area, Lyallpur and women campuses in Faisalabad, Mandi Bahauddin and Gujranwala campuses settled their outstanding dues and submitted undertakings and cheques that they would accept whatever decision the syndicate would take regarding the 25 per cent university share.

It was clearly conveyed to the private campuses by a committee, constituted on the directions of the syndicate, that financial data would be reconciled and the official transcripts and degrees to students would be issued immediately after clearance of the university dues and submission of undertaking to the effect that the campuses shall abide by the decisions of the syndicate with regard to the university share, an official of the examination department said.

However, the Lahore campus did not pay any heed to the notices issued by the university for payment of outstanding dues amounting to around Rs10 million even after protests by its students for non-issuance of their official transcripts and result cards. Interestingly, the Lyallpur Campus submitted a cheque for Nov 31, 2018 whereas November has 30 days.

Mr. Faisal Sheikh, an employee and spokesman of University of Sargodha (UoS), in a press statement released on Thursday said that Lahore Campus of UoS set up under public private partnership (PPP) caused financial losses amounting to Rs15 million to the university in terms of non-receipt of examination fee and compromised the quality and standard of education due to non-conduct of final term examination, comprising 50 per cent weightage at the end of each semester.

It was further alleged that the management of Lahore Campus while practising dishonesty and shady conduct, issued fake and forged result cards, transcripts and registration cards to its students. Besides, it also launched certain professional education programmes without getting accreditation and affiliation from the respective authorities and councils; Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree is an example to quote.

The campus tried to manipulate the process of reconciliation and compliance by exerting political influence and adopted the stance that dues of dropout students were also included in the outstanding amount, therefore, the campus will not pay it off. The university, in its response, asked the campus to provide record of the dropout students but the respective management failed to do so.

These attempts were made to delay the process till August so that the campus could go for admissions as on the directions of the syndicate, the university has prohibited the Lahore Campus from enrollment and admissions for session Fall-2018.

It merits mentioning that the UoS administration had initiated a scrutiny process against these campuses back in 2012, in the aftermath of concerns communicated by the Higher Education Commission regarding process of establishment, deficiency of facilities, faculty issues, enrolment of students in unrecognised programmes and several complaints received from various corners.

Nonetheless, the university has now started the process of issuing official transcripts and degrees to the students of those campuses which have deposited the dues and submitted undertakings and cheques against the university share which is yet to be decided by the syndicate.

Earlier, the University of Sargodha, through a student alert notice and a press note from the spokesperson in national newspapers, had urged students enrolled to PPP campuses to ensure that they are registered at the university, so that they could obtain their transcripts and degrees on time.

Contact number of the sub-campus could not be found to get the version.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2018