Mismanaged admissions

The Cambridge international exam students cannot score more than 90 percent as per their system. The brightest of these students cannot get admission into a public-sector medical college, since their merit always remain above 90 percent. No authority in Pakistan has ever tried to rectify this disadvantage to A-level qualified students. Private colleges are the only hope for them.

Almost all the private medical college admissions of Islamabad and Rawalpindi are to be processed by SZAB Medical University, whose entry test exam has been changed from July 31 to July 25, on the orders of the PMDC. But this is a date on which all these students have already booked the said exam for the UHS, catering for Punjab territory medical colleges. The UHS had started the process much earlier and they categorically have asked for their test whether the candidate wants to apply for the Punjab territory, public as well as private medical colleges. This change of dates is likely to ruin the future of many deserving students. Moreover, it is important to note that students from all over Pakistan are entitled to appear in the SZAB university exam, being a federal area university. Admissions of private medical colleges were terribly mismanaged last year and we parents are very concerned as the position is not very clear even this year.

Shabbir Ahmed

Rawalpindi