KU’s faulty admission process worries students

The University of Karachi has left thousands of students confused over its admission process for the new session due to induction of inexperienced members in the admissions committee, The News learnt on Tuesday.

The KU administration has admitted that the university’s admission process is faulty, but members of the admissions committee are entirely incapable of rectifying these problems. There is no mechanism in place at KU to fix their errors or the mistakes made by the candidates during the submission of applications through the university’s website.

Moreover, the admissions committee has changed the admission policy during the admission process, and that too in the absence of the director of admissions. Due to this malpractice, many students who had passed the entry test conducted by the National Testing Services last month were disqualified from the admission process.

The admissions committee also changed the entry test’s passing percentage from 50 to 40 per cent. After most applicants failed to achieve 50 per cent in the entry test of some university departments, the admissions committee decided to reduce the passing percentage.

Moreover, the university decided to aggregate the entry test percentage with the intermediate examination percentage of every student for determining the average percentage to qualify for their admission.

This change in policy also provided an opportunity to the low achievers to get an admission only because they had secured a higher percentage in their intermediate examination, while many high achievers were deprived of an admission because their average percentage was low.

Adnan Khan, who had applied for an admission in the Department of Computer Science, told The News that he had paid Rs3,400 to take the entry test. “I passed the test with 52 marks, but after the admissions committee changed the admission policy, I was dropped from the admission process, which is an injustice because KU had earlier promised admissions on the basis of passing the entry test.”

He said the university administration charged every candidate a hefty fee for the test, but many of them would have to pay again to take the next entry test for the evening programme.

Another student, Muhammad Ahsan, said KU generally announced its admission policy before the admission process, but this year the admissions committee had changed the policy during the admission process, which was not only illegal but also unethical.

Unfortunately, now the university administration cannot restore the former admission policy, even if it wishes to, because a number of previously failed students have confirmed their admission.

“I approached top KU officials but I was told to apply for the evening programme, which is not my fault,” Ahsan said, adding that there was no one at the university to guide the applicants.

A top KU official admitted that one blunder after another had been committed by the members of the “inexperienced” admissions committee. “This year a number of mistakes were made by the committee in the admission process,” KU Vice-chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan told The News.

He said KU had set up an online admission system this year, which was why the applicants had faced problems. “We have received a lot of complaints but KU can’t reverse the admission process now.”

The same views were expressed by KU Admissions Director Prof Dr Muhammad Ahmed Qadri, who told The News that he was on an official visit to China, which was why the major decisions about the admission process were taken by other members. He, however, said the university had formed a committee to investigate the complaints.

KU spokesman Muhammad Farooq claimed that the admissions committee had awarded admissions on merit. “The students who were successful in their aptitude test, their marks in the intermediate examinations were also counted to prepare the final merit list. Therefore, the students who had obtained the highest percentage were considered for admissions.”

He explained the committee’s formula for the admission: “The candidates who obtained at least 40 per cent marks in the entry test were declared eligible for admission. But the final merit list was prepared by aggregating every student’s entry test percentage with their intermediate examination percentage.”