Business school gets QAU affiliation

Islamabad

Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) Vice-Chancellor Dr. Ashraf Javed has granted the university’s provisional affiliation to the Islamabad Business School (IBS) despite the refusal of the last syndicate, the university’s top decision-making body, to do so.

The development comes days before the new syndicate is in place, provoking suspicion.

The QAU has no syndicate since the last days of December when the previous one’s tenure ended.

Located along the GT Road on the outskirts of Islamabad, the IBS offers MS and PhD courses in management, and MBA, BBA and BS (International Relations) programmes.

A member of the QAU staff questioned the hasty affiliation of the IBS.

“I wonder why the VC felt the need to use discretionary powers to affiliate the business school, especially when the new syndicate is set to be there. The haste shown by the VC has made the whole exercise shady,” he said.

A university teacher insisted there was something fishy about the IBS affiliation.

He asked the VC to explain position to address doubts arisen about the matter.

When contacted, QAU spokesman Dr. Ilhan Niaz confirmed the grant of the university’s provisional affiliation to the IBS.

He, however, hastened to add that the next syndicate could review it.

The spokesman said the last syndicate rejected the IBS affiliation case without studying it well and therefore, the VC had another look at it, found it to be fitting the affiliation requirements and accepted it provisionally though, using discretionary powers.

“We’ve affiliated the school for the time being. The next syndicate, which will be in place in few days, can review it,” he said.

Former QAU syndicate member Dr. Asif Ali claimed that the VC wasn’t authorised to affiliate any educational institutions with the university on his own.

“Neither he (VC) can do it nor should he have done it. In fact, he’s tried to play with the future of scores of youths by granting their school the provisional affiliation as there’s a strong possibility that the next syndicate following in the footsteps of its predecessor will reverse the move,” he told ‘The News’.

Dr. Asif also insisted that the last syndicate rejected the IBS affiliation case after thoroughly examining it.