Confusion prevails among students seeking admission to UoP

PESHAWAR: Confusion prevailed among the students seeking admission to the undergraduate programme at the 43 departments of the University of Peshawar and Khyber Law College as the university administration has moved ahead with the admission process by announcing the provisional merit list despite the stay order of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and non-declaration of the results of Law Admission Test (LAT).

The university administration is of the opinion that law would take its course, but they have to function under the university calendar and cannot delay the process.

It argued that for admission to the Law College, the LAT was an eligibility test and the candidates who failed to qualify it would automatically be dropped from the merit.

This situation is confusing. “If LAT is really an eligibility test, how they can declare the merit without even knowing the eligible candidates,” said a parent whose daughter is seeking admission to the Law College.

“And now if they give admission to a candidate and he/she fails to qualify the eligibility test, would the admission be cancelled,” he asked. “This is ridiculous!” he exclaimed.

The situation at the other departments of the university is also causing confusing. The university actually arranged an entry test for admissions to the undergraduate programme on July 29 before the declaration of the FA/FSc examination.

According to sources, the university administration had thought that nearly 15,000 students would apply for the test and they would earn good revenue as Rs1,500 had been fixed as fee for the test.

But to the disappointment of the university administration, only 4,000 to 5,000 students appeared in the test.

Some blue-eyed candidates of certain top officials of the university also failed to qualify the test, the sources said. Therefore, the university announced another test for admission to the same departments after the declaration of the FA/FSc results.

The candidates who failed the previous test or got low marks also appeared for the test, which was almost the same as the previous one. This irked the students who had already qualified the first test and had not applied for the second one.

Essa Khan, a lawyer of Peshawar High Court, moved the court against the process, praying that the two tests should not be mixed up and separate merit lists should be devised on the basis of both the tests.

The court fixed 26 as date for hearing the case and restrained the process till then. However, the university administration announced the provisional merit list on Thursday and is planning to declare the final merit on September 18.

When contacted, spokesman for the university Ali Imran claimed that none of the candidates who appeared in the first test took the second one. He said they needed to follow the university calendar, therefore, the process would continue and the law would take its course.

The matter of admission for the five-year LLB programme at Khyber Law College is interesting. For all the law colleges in the country, the Higher Education Commission had announced LAT this year in view of a decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

In Peshawar, LAT was held at the Institute of Management Sciences on August 18 and the result is yet to be declared. But without waiting for the result the Khyber Law College announced the merit list.

The university spokesman said that LAT was an eligibility test and the candidate who failed it would be removed from the list. The admission of these candidates if already made would stand cancelled.

Another sad aspect of the episode is that the university administration has decided to revive evening shift based on self-finance. It seems the university administration is desperate to enhance its revenue. The self-finance scheme had already been there in the university, but it was discontinued in 2015.

The university spokesman said the administration wanted to increase the number of students as the Higher Education Commission allocates grants to the universities on the basis of their enrollment. “Once we increase the number of students, we would be able to get more grants from the HEC,” he remarked.

The reintroduction of the self-finance scheme in the evening has drawn criticism. The previous administration of the university had taken the decision to discontinue the scheme after thorough analysis of the situation.

The decision was made because the self-finance scheme was bringing no financial benefits for the university and was adversely affecting the standard of education.

The amount collected from self-financed students is distributed among the teachers and the administrative staff without giving the benefit of a single penny to the university.

The treasurer, who has nothing to do with evening classes, gets Rs28,000 as allowance for the evening shift. All the administrative staff gets similar allowances. The teachers who take the evening classes in the morning along with the students admitted in the morning shift, get Rs1,200 per class.

Also, the teachers engaged in the evening shift are unable to do research and bring foreign-funded projects to the university. This adversely affects the ranking of the institution, the sources said.