LAHORE, Aug 23: Governor Khalid Maqbool has directed all public universities in the province not to increase fee in any discipline without the chancellor’s approval. The governor, who is the chancellor of the public-sector universities, asked them to rationalize the fee structure of those disciplines which were expensive.

Presiding over a meeting of the vice-chancellors of the public universities here at the Governor’s House on Tuesday, Mr Maqbool directed them to also waive the fees of 30 per cent deserving students.

He said the children of the poor took admission to the public-sector universities and they must not be denied higher education by frequent fee increases. He asked the institutions to enhance their resources.

Describing the MBA programme of the Punjab University; the Government College University, Lahore and its Faisalabad campus; the BBA programme of the Islamia University Bahawalpur; the PhD programmes of the Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi; the Bahauddin University, Multan; and the University of Education as costly, the governor asked their heads to rationalize the fee structures in order to make them affordable for the poor students.

He said the Pakistan Baitul Maal had doubled the scholarships, making them 200 for the deserving students of each university in the province.

Governor Maqbool directed the vice-chancellors to complete the admission process between July and September every year and make new recruitments from across the country on merit.

To oversee a development project of a university, the VCs were directed to establish a planning and development cell and appoint a project director if the amount of the scheme was over Rs50 million.

The meeting reviewed the overall ongoing development projects in the varsities. The governor was informed that the development projects worth Rs9.7 billion were in progress in all public universities in the province. Of the total amount, Rs5.1 billion and Rs1.7 billion had been contributed by the Higher Education Commission and the Punjab government, respectively.

The opening of the university sub-campuses in various cities and districts were also discussed. The governor asked them to double the student enrolment by 2010. At present, the total enrolment in the public universities is 96,175.

The governor was informed that various universities were launching new programmes from next year. The University of Health Sciences would start BSc medical imaging and physiotherapy and MSc in medical technology, The Lahore College for Women LLB, post-graduate studies in bio-medics and MSc renewable engineering sources, the GCU would launch the school of law and the school of pharmacy, the institute of accountancy, the institute of microbiology and molecular genetics and MSc entrepreneurship, the PU a school of agriculture which would offer programmes in MPhil, PhD and post-doctoral courses, MSc hydrology, diploma in tourism and hotel management and diploma in artificial management.

The University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, would launch MA cultural heritage and MSc dairy technology programmes, the Islamia University Bahawalpur BA, BSc honours in mass communication and statistics, economics and physics, and the University of Engineering and Technology would launch MSc auto-motive engineering, chemical process technology and manufacturing engineering.—Staff Reporter