LAHORE, Jan 22: The Punjab University has spent hundreds of thousands of rupees on installation of signboards and pictures in the New Campus at a time when its departments do not even have funds for research and other academic pursuits.

The university installed over 140 signboards and pictures in and around the campus a couple of months ago “for students’ character-building”.

PU vice-chancellor Arshad Mahmood said at the annual university convocation that these signboards would help build students’ characters. A university report has counted installation of signboards as one of the major achievements of the university during the last three years.

On the other hand, almost all departments of the university are short of research funds.

When contacted, teachers of various university departments said the university had not issued its research circular last year, whereby they could have applied for research in their respective fields. They said: “The university should concentrate on spending money on research and academic activities instead of wasting hundreds of thousands of rupees on unproductive activities.”

Teachers believe that installation of signboards in every nook and corner of the university is giving an impression that the campus belongs to some commercial institute. There is a limited number of books and research journals in the department libraries as well as in the university main library. But the university has yet to take notice of the problem.

A University Law College student Mohammad Atif told this reporter that neither the college nor the university library met students’ academic requirements. Therefore, he and his class-fellows had to visit other libraries of the city.

The university only offers a limited number of scholarships to its students. There has always been a demand to increase the number, as a majority of students belong to poor families.

Some of the departments do not have canteens. This creates problems for students who have to depend on other department’s canteens. These departments bring the problem to VC’s notice every now and then but to no avail.

The university has launched BA/BSc (Honours) programmes in different subjects without establishing a separate block for the purpose. The university officials, however, claimed that a new block would be established within a few months.

Similarly, 1,700 girl students of the Punjab University are forced to live in five hostels that have the capacity to accommodate only 800 students. The problem has been there for the last seven years, but the university does nothing to address it. Provision of computers is also one of the ignored areas.