HED yet to issue NOCs to 23 colleges for BS admissions

LAHORE

The administration of 23 public colleges of Punjab, selected to offer BS 4-Year Programmes from this year, is in a fix as the Higher Education Department has yet to issue NOCs to these colleges to start the admission process.

The admission season for 2-Year Bachelor Programmes (BA/BSc) and BS 4-Year Programmes (BS-4YP) starts well before the declaration of result of Intermediate examinations across the province. This year all the nine Boards of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISEs) of Punjab declared the Intermediate results on September 17. 

While most of the public and private colleges have almost completed admissions process for BA/BSc (equivalent to 14 years of education) and BS programme (equivalent to 16 years of education), the 23 colleges have yet to start offering admissions in the new programmes. 

It is pertinent to mention here that earlier this year the Directorate of Public Instruction (Colleges) had forwarded a request to the Higher Education Department (HED) to start BS-4YP in 40 selected colleges of the province. However, a sub-committee tasked to review the availability of required faculty and infrastructure in these colleges recommended 23 of these colleges to start the four-year degree programme. 

Subsequently, the HED was requested to issue NOCs to the colleges so that the admissions process could be started and it was stated that meanwhile the required faculty would also be made available at these colleges as per disciplines/subjects to be offered under the new BS programme. However, the NOCs have yet to be issued.

“The whole situation is quite dicey for us”, said principal of one of the colleges and added “We remained unable to properly entertain admission queries related to new BS programme.” Seeking anonymity the principal said the situation further complicated as these colleges had also been asked to stop admissions in the 2-year Bachelor programmes in disciplines/subjects in which the 4-Year BS 4-Year Programme (BS-4YP) would be started. 

“We stopped admissions in these programmes telling students to wait for admissions in new programmes”, he said. He questioned as to how long the prospective students could wait saying many would not return for admission after securing admissions in other private or public colleges.  

Principal of another selected college said bureaucratic sluggishness was causing the delay. “Since we will be starting admissions late, we are uncertain who and how many we will attract for the new programmes”, he added.

The 23 colleges selected to offer new BS-4YP in multiple disciplines/ subjects include Govt Postgraduate College for Women, Wahdat Road (Lahore), Govt College for Women, Baghbanpura (Lahore), Govt Postgraduate College (Bahawalpur), Govt Kh. Farid Postgraduate College (Rahimyar Khan), Govt College for Women (Muzaffargarh), Govt Postgraduate College (Layyah), Govt Postgraduate College (Rajanpur), Govt Islamia College for Women (Faisalabad), Govt Municipal College for Women (Toba Tek Singh), Govt Postgraduate College, Jaranwala (Faisalabad), Govt Postgraduate College, Samundari (Faisalabad), Govt Zamindar Postgraduate College (Gujrat), Govt Islamia College (Kasur), Govt Postgraduate College for Boys (Sheikhupura), Govt Postgraduate College (Khanewal), Govt Postgraduate College (Vehari), Govt Postgraduate College for Women (Khanewal), Govt Postgraduate College for Women (Vehari), Govt Viqar-un-Nisa College for Women (Rawalpindi), Govt Postgraduate College (Okara), Govt Postgraduate College (Bhakkar), Govt Postgraduate College, Jauharabad (Khushab) and Govt Postgraduate College (Mianwali).

It is also pertinent to mention here that in order to start the new BS programmes at these selected colleges the sub-committee has also recommended at least one regular PhD or MPhil faculty member along with at least two more regular lecturers in the same discipline. Since the HED also faces shortage of faculty it has been recommended that this year shortage of faculty will be met through recruitment of College Teaching Interns (CTIs) having at least MPhil qualification while from next year regular faculty would be ensured. It has also been decided that the Master Degree Programmes being offered by these colleges in the disciplines/subjects of BS-4YP will be discontinued from the next academic year.

The News could not reach Secretary Higher Education Capt (r) Nasim Nawaz despite repeated attempts on his official cell number. 

However, a senior HED official, seeking anonymity, claimed that the department had approved the NOCs for the colleges and the colleges would be receiving the same during this week. He also claimed five to six colleges had also been affiliated with the relevant universities for the new BS-4YP and added the affiliation process of the remaining colleges would also be completed soon.