PhD programmes of 11 KP varsities fail to attract enrolment

PESHAWAR: Despite a huge budget, not a single student has been enrolled in the PhD programmes of around 11 universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the last three years. A decreasing trend in enrolment has also been observed in graduate programmes of the six universities while six universities don’t have any students of MS/MPhil. Besides at least two of the universities’ undergraduate programmes have also seen a declining trend in enrollment.

The Governor House Peshawar has issued a fiscal analysis of KP universities 2021-2024. The report said not a single student has been enrolled in PhD programmes at several universities during the last three years. These universities include the University of Shangla, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Agriculture Swat, Shuhada-e-APS University of Technology, Nowshera, FATA University, FR Kohat, University of Buner, Women University Swabi, Women University Mardan, University of Engineering and Applied Sciences Swat, University of Agriculture D.I.Khan and University of Chitral.

The analysis by the Deputy Secretary of Governor House, Usman Jilani, said a decreasing trend in enrollment of graduate programmes in six universities was recorded. 165 students were enrolled in Women’s University Swabi in 2021-22 but not a single student was enrolled in 2022-23 and 2023-24. Not a single student was enrolled in Women’s University Mardan during the last three years. Around 98 students were enrolled in Khushal Khan Khattak University Karak in 2021-22 but the number fell in the coming years to 69 in 2022-23 and 79 in 2023-24. As many as 479 students were enrolled in Swabi University in 2021-22, but the number dropped to 327 in the next year, while the number of students in 2023-24 fell to 235. Similarly around 919 students were enrolled in Islamia College University Peshawar in 2021-22 but that dropped to 620 in 2022-23 and 393 in 2023-24. Around 432 students were enrolled in Abbottabad University of Science and Technology but the numbers dropped to 416 in 2023-24. The report further revealed that not a single student was enrolled in MS/MPhil programmes of six universities, including the University of Shangla, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Agriculture Swat, Shuhada-e-APS University of Technology Nowshera, FATA University, FR Kohat, and the University of Buner.

The Governor House report said that enrollment in undergraduate programmes in two universities was found decreasing. Around 4,643 students were enrolled in Shaheed Benazir University, Peshawar, in 2021-22 but the number of students fell to 4,473 in the next year and further decreased to 4,347 in 2023-24. Similarly, 8,161 students were admitted to the University of Agriculture Peshawar in 2021-22 but their number dropped in the next year to 7,011 while slightly increasing to 7,675 in 2023-24.