KHYBER: Students have resented annulment of the affiliation of Government Postgraduate College Landi Kotal with University of Peshawar (UoP), terming it unjust and against their academic interests.

Now, the college has been affiliated with Fata University. On January 19, Fata University issued a notification regarding repeal of the previous affiliation of the college with UoP.

The president of students union in the college, Daud Shinwari, told this scribe that they had serious reservations over affiliation of their college with Fata University. In the recent past, students held protest demonstrations against it, he added.

He said that higher education, archives and libraries department had in 2017-18 affiliated the first batch of BS students with Fata University but the university failed to issue detailed marks certificates and other necessary academic documents to local students after examinations.

Threaten to launch protest

“University of Peshawar even refused to recognise and accept our certificates for different subjects which we had successfully cleared in examinations conducted by Fata University few years ago,” he said. He added that scores of local students had to repeat their courses under UoP to continue studies.

Mr Shinwari said that most of his fellow students had reservations over the ranking of Fata University both at national and international levels. “They want to be affiliated with a prestigious educational institute like UoP,” he added.

He feared that the number of students in the college would gradually decline as most of them were interested to be affiliated with a comparatively better university so that their academic credentials could be honoured and accepted instead of being looked down upon.

Sources told this scribe that in February 2025 the demand about retaining affiliation of the college with UoP was accepted due to growing concerns of students of different disciplines, particularly students of BS computer science and political science, and a no objection certificate (NOC) was duly obtained from Fata University.

The decision was, however, suddenly reversed through an official notification in January with the continuation of affiliation of BS computer science and political science with UoP only for the current session. The students and management of the college were told that future enrolments and affiliations would be switched over to Fata University.

Mr Shinwari threatened to start a series of protests if the decision was not reversed as it would seriously harm the academic interests of students without taking them into confidence.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2026