PESHAWAR: The syndicate of University of Peshawar (UoP) on Tuesday approved merger of 20 departments with each other owing to shortage of students in their academic programmes.

The meeting of the syndicate was chaired by Vice-chancellor Prof Johar Ali. “The formal approval of the merger of departments will be given by the senate of UoP,” a teacher of the historic university told Dawn.

He said that students were not showing interest in getting admission in public sector universities due to incompatibility with local and global markets. “In last year admission session, majority of universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa time and again asked students through local newspapers and their websites to get admission,” he said. Students were not opting for admission that’s why universities were compelled to publish advertisements time and again, he added.

According to official documents, the department of plant biodiversity will be merged with the department of botany and the new department will be named as institute of botany and plant biodiversity.

Final approval of 20 depts’ merger will be given by university senate

The department of urban and regional planning will be merged with the department of geography and geomatics and the merged entity will be designated as department of geography, geomatics and urban planning.

Similarly, the department of Persian will be merged with the department of Urdu and the merged entity will be designated as the department of Urdu and Persian.

Official documents show that the syndicate of UoP also decided to merge the department of sociology, the department of gender studies and the department of social anthropology into a single department. The new department will be either called the department of social and cultural studies or the department of sociology, social anthropology and gender studies.

As per the decision of syndicate, Pashto Academy will be merged with the department of Pashto and the merged entity will be designated as Pashto department and academy for research and literature.

The department of regional studies, the department of international relations, the department of history and the department of philosophy will be merged into a single department. The merged department will be called the department of international relations, history and philosophy.

The department of Seerat will be merged with the department of Islamiat and the merged entity will be designated as the department of Islamic and Seerat Studies.

“Also, the bachelor of studies (BS) human nutrition and dietetics and BS public health programmes, presently offered by College of Home Economics, will be transferred to Institute of Health Sciences, being more relevant to allied health sciences than to home economics,” read the documents.

Similarly, BS fashion design, BS interior design and BS arts and design programmes will be consolidated under a single department or academic unit, so as to enhance academic synergy, promote interdisciplinary collaboration and optimise the utilisation of institutional resources.

Sources in UoP told Dawn that in the previous meeting of senate, the minister for higher education, Meena Khan Afridi, had directed the university administration to merge ‘under-enrolled’ departments to reduce financial burden on the cash-starved varsity.

In this connection, a committee was formed to review enrolment and recommend merger of departments. The committee held several meetings, examined enrolment across all departments, faculty-to-student ratios, departmental salary expenditure and per-student salary cost.

“On the basis of this analysis, the committee proposed systematic consolidation of departments guided by enrolment trends, academic relevance and programme viability,” said sources.

The spokesperson for UoP, Numan Jan, when contacted, said that it was a proposal of the academic council of the university to merge departments. The proposal was endorsed by the syndicate, he added.

He said that merged departments were from the same faculties like Seerat and Isalmiat were same faculties. “Besides, UoP will continue more than 70 BS programmes,” he said.

He said that teaching faculty of those departments would be transferred or adjusted after considering their workload and consolidation of departments and placement of programmes.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026