HYDERABAD is the second biggest city of Sindh but lacks good educational institutions. Unfortunately, there is no public sector university in the city.

There are two professional universities, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences and Sindh University, located 16km away from Hyderabad in Jamshoro.

The students from Hyderabad and its localities (Hala, Matiari Nawabshah, Mirpurkhas) apply to these professional universities for admission. The selection criterion for these universities is tough. The seats allotted to each district under merit/self-finance are not enough.

For example, in MUET the seats for Sukkur (urban) are only 10, seats for Hyderabad are equal to those for Sanghar. LUMHS transferred its 10 seats for Hyderabad to People’s Medical College, Nawabshah, resulting in a shortage of seats. One needs to give Rs500,000 to get admission on self-finance seats for BE in MUET and Rs2million (excluding semester fee) for MBBS/BDS in LUMHS.

It is obviously not possible for everyone to afford this kind of fee structure. Rejected candidates have two options: They can either go to Sindh University, whose environment is spoilt by political influence, or they can go to a private university. But again all cannot afford high fees of a private university.

The government should increase the number of seats for various departments of MUET and LUMHS, while a public sector university should be established in Hyderabad, offering bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes.

MAROOF FAISAL Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Hyderabad