LAHORE: The academic departments of the Government College University have formally adopted the policy of zero-semester and non-credit mandatory courses/training for students who require extra attention.

The policy is approved by the Academic Council.

According to the policy, the admission committees and students’ academic advisers will identify courses for students.

Non-credit courses will be of foreign languages such as Persian, Arabic, Chinese and French, besides communication skills and basic courses related to a discipline.

Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi said: “This initiative is part of the recent drive to improve the quality of education at GCU. Top-ranked universities offer zero-semester and non-credit courses to equip students with skills necessary to be highly competitive in the job market.”

Unfortunately, the VC said, Pakistani universities were reluctant to adopt this strategy due to limited financial and human resources.

“Despite these tangible problems, GCU is committed to going to any extent to make its students distinguished. We will not charge our students any additional amount,” he said.

A chairperson of an academic department told the media that even sometimes toppers of boards and other universities could not secure decent grades at GCU because they lacked basic skills.

“Now the university has taken this much-needed initiative to help our talented lot,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2021