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New four-year bachelor degree programme in Pakistani colleges
New bachelor programme in colleges planned
Islamabad, July 26, 2008: The steering committee of the provincial education
secretaries has decided to execute the plan of a four-year degree programme in a
phased manner in degree colleges of all the provinces.
The decision was
taken at the 8th meeting of the steering committee. "The transition will be
brought about in a phased manner initially through degree colleges to be
identified and developed by the provincial governments," said Prof (Dr) Sohail
Naqvi, Executive Director Higher Education Commission (HEC), while presiding
over the meeting.
The committee, which was constituted in 2003 to ensure
cooperation between the HEC and the provincial education departments, is
responsible for deliberating upon issues of mutual interest and evolving better
strategies for their resolution.
Dr Naqvi informed the members that the
four-year programme had already been running successfully for all the
professional degree courses like agricultural sciences, animal husbandry,
architecture and town planning as well as city and regional planning,
engineering and medical and pharmaceutical sciences.
He said following
the HEC initiative, almost all the universities have switched over to the new
scheme of study for their BS degrees in computer sciences and IT, basic and
natural sciences, management sciences and social sciences. "The model system for
adoption of the four-year programme through selected degree colleges, to be
finalised by government of the Punjab, will be provided to other provinces", he
said.
The committee appreciated the idea of monitoring the collaborative
degrees between local and foreign institutions and desired that inspection of
such institutions be made after regular intervals to keep vigilance over
standards of education. The concept of collaborative degrees is aimed at
providing local students a foreign degree at relatively cheaper rates without
actually going abroad.
The local partner institutions are required to
follow curricula, scheme of studies, assessment and evaluation processes of the
foreign university.
The committee was informed about the progress made
regarding the fulfilment of the cabinet criteria for private degree awarding
institutions. The members appreciated the commission's efforts and agreed on
pressing sponsors of private institutions to satisfy the parameters of the
cabinet criteria.
The meeting was attended by Jan Mohammad Dashti,
secretary education Balochistan; Maqsood Mumtaz, additional secretary, education
Punjab; Hazrat Masud Mian, additional secretary NWFP education department; Taj
Mohamamd Seelro, additional secretary (academics and training), Sindh; Mohammad
Javed Khan, director general attestation and accreditation HEC; Anwar Amjad,
consultant IT, HEC; Ms. Ghayyur Fatima, deputy director curriculum, HEC, and
Hassan Zaidi, project coordinator, digital library programme, HEC. Dawn
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New degree plan not to be rushed
Karachi: "There is no plan to execute the four-year degree programme
abruptly. The transition will be brought about in a phased manner initially
through degree colleges to be identified and developed by the Provincial
Governments." This was stated by Professor Dr Sohail Naqvi, Executive Director,
Higher Education Commission (HEC) while presiding over the 8th meeting of the
Steering Committee of Provincial Education Secretaries held at the HEC Regional
Centre, Karachi.
According to a press release on Friday the committee,
constituted in 2003 to ensure cooperation between the HEC and the provincial
education departments, deliberated on issues of mutual interest and evolving
better strategies for their resolution.
Dr Naqvi informed the members
that the four-year programme has already been running successfully at all the
professional degree courses like Agricultural Sciences, Animal Husbandry,
Architecture and Town Planning, City and Regional Planning, Engineering and
Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences etc.
He said that following the HEC
initiative, almost all the universities have switched over to this new scheme of
study. "This model system for adoption of four-year Bachelors through the
selected degree college, to be finalised by the govt. of the Punjab, will be
provided to other provinces," he said.
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Bahria University asked to refund interest money
Islamabad: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has directed the
Bahria University to refund the interest amount up to Rs10 million to the
students who have purchased the laptops from the university on
instalments.
Responding to the notice issued by the CCP, the senior
officials of the Bahria University, Islamabad, appeared before the commission to
explain as to why proceedings under Section 38 of the Competition Ordinance may
not be initiated against the university.
The hearing of the case was held
on June 16, 2008 at the CCP Office. Dr. Joseph Wilson, Member CCP conducted the
hearing. Rear Admiral Shahid Latif, Commander Mumtaz Raza and Captain Tashfeen
Riaz appeared on behalf of the university.
The member, after hearing the
case observed in his order issued on Friday that the university is providing
educational services and now have committed to comply with the competition law
in future, the Commission is not imposing any penalty on it. However, they have
to refund the interest amount up to Rs10 million to the students who have
purchased the laptops from the university and have been paying the interest
cost. Further the university was ordered to stop the practice
immediately.
Taking notice of a news item published on
16-02-2008 alleging that the students seeking admission in the Bahria College
were being forced by the university authorities to buy old laptops, the CCP
decided to initiate an inquiry. Vide their letter dated March 04, 2008, the CCP
asked the Rector of the University for comments on the allegation made in the
said report, mainly:- Bahria College (the College) has made it mandatory for the
new entrants to buy laptops imported by the college; 4500 Acer Laptops purchased
in 2006 have been sold as a pre-condition to those who got admission in certain
disciplines during 2007 and 2008; A large number of students were reluctant to
buy these laptops as they already have their own but still they were made to buy
these 'obsolete' machines to qualify for admission in the college; and almost
1500 machines still remain unsold and would be provided to the next batch of
admission seekers of the college.
In their reply vide letter dated April
11, 2008, the university authorities admitted that they have been selling the
laptops to the students as it was considered the helpful tool for the students
in their education especially in information technology. The University,
however, informed the commission that they have revised the policy and from the
next semester, no student would be required to mandatory purchase of Laptops
from the university stocks.
The university in its reply stated that it
has initiated the scheme only to facilitate the students and enable them to make
use of the digital library, e-teaching by faculty and other steps taken by the
university to make the campus WiFi. The university also clarified that they
bought the laptops through a loan from Bank of Punjab and they were passing on
all the payments received from the students to the banks for repayment of their
loan and the interest amount.
During the hearing, officials of the Bahria
University explained that the university imported 4500 laptops keeping in view
the number of students in both the campuses of the university in Islamabad and
in Karachi. He further explained that so far they have sold 3,649 laptops to the
students, out of which 2,327 have been sold on instalments and 1322 on lump sum
payment. The University, however, admitted that due to ignorance of the
competition law they were unaware of the violation and as soon as they received
the notice of the commission, they stopped the sale of laptops in the campus and
also removed the mandatory requirement of purchase of laptops.
They
further requested the commission to take a lenient view in their case as they
are a prime institution providing educational services to a number of students
and they were ignorant of the violation.
In an another matter on the 24th
of July CCP also heard 4 senior cement sector executives who were witnesses at
the CCP inspection of APCMA office on 24th April, 2008. The witnesses made their
statements under oath. These statements will assist the CCP in its further
proceedings.
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Konpal tops GIK entry test
Peshawar: Konpal Shaukat Ali, a girl hailing from Hayatabad has topped admission test for Ghulam Ishaq
Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology.An official of student
affairs said Friday that the GIK Institute would offer her maximum financial
support because of her outstanding merit. A sum of Rs83 million has been
provided to the needy students since the inception of the institute in 1993. The News
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Poetry, short story competition at FJWU
Rawalpindi: A short story writing and poetry competition was held at Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU) on Friday
in connection with the Independence Day.
Shabnam Shakeel, a poetess, was
the chief guest. Begum Shamim Ikramullah and Shama Khalid were the judges.
Students from various departments took part in competition with full
zeal. The first prize in poetry competition went to Hifsah Saeed, second prize
to Rabia Batool and the third to Tayyaba Abid.
In the short story
competition, Tayyaba Abid got the first prize, Saima Khaliq the second and
Saboohi Sadiqqui the third.
Shabnam Shakeel gave away prizes to the
winners. She said the competition had revived the memories of her university
life and such activities should be promoted. "The poems are full of patriotic
sentiments. They show the students' love for their country," she said.
Saadia Ishtiaq, of the Department of Communication Sciences, delivered
the welcome speech at the start of the competition.
In the end,
University Souvenirs were presented to the guests. The FJWU Campus Radio has
recorded the programme and will broadcast it on August 14. Daily Times
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