KARACHI, Feb 20: The Academic Council of Karachi University on Thursday decided to constitute a committee, which would formulate recommendations in regard to introduction of four-year Honours programme at the varsity , sources on the campus said.

The KU vice-chancellor has been authorized to nominate five members for the committee on Honours programme, which would submit its report on whether to implement the new course or not before the Academic Council.

The Higher Education Commission had asked the varsity last month to switch over to the four year programme, as some of the varsities had already introduced the same, calling it a positive development, the sources said.

"Technically, we may say that the matter has been deferred till the finalization of the report by the committee in offing, for which no time frame has been given by the council," a senior KU professor commented.

The Academic Council, chaired by KU Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim, among other items on agenda, also considered the syllabi of the four-year BE Chemical Engineering and BS Agriculture programmes of the university, and referred it back to the bodies concerned for reprocessing.

The council observed certain procedural anomalies in the working papers and suggested that statutory requirements be fulfilled prior to further presentation of the syllabi before the council.

It was also decided that admissions given for the agriculture programme should be maintained and related courses, as prepared by the adhoc Faculty of Engineering, should be kept intact till any final decision by the Academic Council, the source added.

A committee has also been formed to look into the eligibility criteria for admissions to MSc programme of the Microbiology department in the evening shift. The council also approved the actions taken and reported by the vice-chancellor in regard to grant of affiliation for introduction of different graduate and postgraduate courses in educational institutions in the city, a source privy to the meeting said.