LAHORE: Many public universities of the province have adopted an illogical policy of putting the cart before the horse by starting admissions to their undergraduate programmes even before the announcement of the intermediate part-ii results.

Students, their parents and the academics are raising questions over the admission policy of such universities.

The intermediate part-II results are expected to be announced on Sept 20 by all the boards of intermediate and secondary education (BISEs) of the province but some public universities have already completed the admissions to undergraduate programmes and they will start classes from the next week.

The universities, which have already completed the admission process, include the University of Education, Lahore, Kinnaird College for Women University, Lahore, Islamia University Bahawalpur, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Women University Multan, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila and Government College for Women University, Sialkot. Many others are completing the process of admissions.

Thousands of the students have secured their admissions to these universities and will start taking classes from Monday (Sept 12) despite being unsure about their results.

The universities and colleges are holding admissions for undergraduate programmes after developing an aggregate on the basis of matriculation and intermediate part-i marks.

The parents of the students are of the view that the public sector universities are not following a single admission policy because some of the universities are waiting for intermediate results while others have completed the admission process. They say that they have to submit thousands of rupees fee to secure the admission without knowing the results. They complain the universities don’t give full fee back if any student does not want admission to a certain university and chooses another. They say that only the students and their families would suffer under the new admission policy while the universities would make money.

The students are of the view that they are getting admission under the new policy because they don’t want to lose a year. They fear that if they don’t get admission right now, the merit can go high after the intermediate results and they may not get admission to any other university.

Talking to Dawn, Government College University (GCU) Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi says the delay in FA/FSc results is causing problems for the universities but the new policy of some universities of conducting admission before announcement of intermediate results is not good.

He says the BISEs should develop a process to announce the results of the intermediate well before announcement of admissions. Other academics also criticised the decision of universities for launching admissions before intermediate part-ii results.

Another academician, Khurrum Shehzad, says the universities are conducting admissions just to earn money. He adds that the administration of these universities wants to fill all their seats of morning and evening programmes and violate the rule of equal opportunity to all students.

“It has also created confusion among the students and parents and they did not have the choice to wait for other universities and colleges’ admission schedules,” he says.

He adds that the universities and colleges had conducted admissions based on intermediate part-i results last year because there was a special situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the BISEs could not hold the part-ii exams.

Mr Shehzad says that the BISEs used to announce the result in the first week of September and this year, it’s only a delay of two weeks. He says that haphazard policy is against the students who have got less marks in the first part of the intermediate and who can work harder to improve their marks in the second part.

BZU registrar Sohaib Rashid tells Dawn that the admissions have started before the announcement of intermediate results because the university can’t delay its academic session.

While replying to a query of giving a choice to the students, he says the students are getting admission on their choice and no one is forcing them. He argues that the higher forums, including the syndicate and academic council, have given permission to the university to give admission under the new policy and it is not violating any rules.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2022