LAHORE: The Punjab University administration has reduced the number of seats in its four-year BS programme by 12.5 per cent “to improve the varsity’s ranking.”

The oldest and largest public sector university in the province has taken the measure “to provide better research and development, teaching and supervision related and allied facilities to post-graduate students i.e. of MS, MPhil and PhD programmes or equivalent,” according to a notification issued by the Punjab University registrar on the instructions of the vice-chancellor.

Not applicable to PU’s Gujranwala and Jhelum campuses, the policy will deny admission to some 650 students in the forthcoming academic session to various undergraduate programmes on the main campus of the varsity.

Meanwhile, a member of the Punjab University Syndicate has expressed concern over the measure, terming it a “gimmickry in order to show a higher percentage of MS/Mphil and PhD students, compared to the BS and MA/MSC students.”

“The tactics are just aimed at misleading the higher authorities and showing that the percentage of post-graduate students under the present administration has increased considerably. In fact, no practical measure has been takenfor the last seven-and-a-half years to increase percentage of the students in the MS/Mphil and PhD programmes,”said the PU Syndicate member, seeking anonymity.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2015

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