KU grants admissions to 457 new students for ongoing academic year

Around 457 new students were accepted into the University of Karachi on vacant seats after a committee tasked to investigate irregularities in this year’s admissions process submitted its report to the KU Academic Council on Wednesday.

The council had formed a five-member committee last week, comprising Prof Dr Shaista Tabbasum of the international relations department, Prof Saleem Shehzad, former admissions director, Prof Dr Majid Mumtaz, Acting Admissions Director, Dr Nasir Salman, the dean of education at and Prof Dr Iqbal Azhar, the dean pharmacy faculty. They were tasked with investigating mismanagement and irregularities in the admissions for academic year 2018 which applicants had claimed resulted in them not securing a seat in the varsity.

The committee submitted its report to the KU Academic Council in a meeting chaired by Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan in which both the council members and the committee members both expressed satisfaction over the admission process.

According to the report, 457 admissions have been granted to applicants on vacant seats and the merit list has also been issued. All selected students can submit their admission fees by February 25 to begin sitting in the classes.

MQM against irregularities

Earlier in February, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan had claimed that applicants from Karachi were disregarded and not granted admissions for this year and had warned of launching a protest against Karachi University’s administration if the issue was not resolved.

Senior leader Faisal Sabzwari criticised the university administration and admissions committee in a press conference, saying that their “incompetence” resulted in the admissions setback for local students.

According to Sabzwari, last year KU granted more than 8,000 admissions, while this year they reduced them to around 4,250 of which 700 admissions have been cancelled. He said that the university which is already cash-starved would suffer a loss of Rs55 million each semester because of its “wrong policies”.

Sabzwari accused the KU vice-chancellor of reducing the quota for Karachi students to 40 per cent from 50 per cent even though he was not authorised to do any such thing. “The matter should be referred to the academic council for redressal,” he had said.