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Public sector universities degrees in key disciplines
No regular seats at public sector universities in key disciplines
Islamabad, July 23, 2008: To get oneself enrolled in the disciplines of Management
Sciences, Computer Sciences and Engineering has turned a distant dream for the
aspiring students belonging to a middle class as no public sector university
offers courses in these disciplines on regular basis.
Despite heavy funding
from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to the public sector universities,
courses in the said disciplines are being offered on self-financed bases. The
Quaid-i-Azam University which is ranked first among the Pakistani universities
and second among the universities of Muslim countries offers not even a single
seat in the Departments of MBA, Economics and Computer Sciences on regular
basis.
A limited number of seats on regular basis with normal fee are
available in all the departments except MBA, Computer Science and Economics.
Only one discipline, M.Sc Gender Studies offers all seats on regular basis as
per regional quota. Ten additional seats on self-financed basis are being
offered in each discipline except in Pakistan Studies, Psychology and Faculty of
Biological Sciences where 15, 20 & 3 seats in each discipline are on
self-financed basis respectively.
Students pay tuition fee Rs 42,000 per
semester for admission to MBA and M.Sc Computer Science and Rs 32,000 for M.Sc
and MPA in all disciplines, in addition to other dues and charges.
As a top
university of the country, it gets extra amount of funds as compared to other
universities and the students come from across the country because of
regional-based quota system but in terms of fee structure there is no relaxation
for the students.
Another public sector university, International Islamic
University Islamabad (IIUI), offers all the courses in Faculty of Management
Sciences and Faculty of Engineering & Technology on self-financed basis. In
the disciplines of MBA, BBA, Ph.D, MS (Management Sc.), BS, MS and Ph.D in
Electronic Engineering, no seat is available on regular basis.
The COMSATS
Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) also offers such courses with the
same fee structure as prevalent in the private universities. A student from
middle class cannot think of studying in the universities like Bahria and Air
University, though, they are also public sector universities of which dues are
above Rs 60,000 per semester.
The point is, what is the purpose of public
sector universities and why the grant in billions is distributed to them across
the country when a student has to bear the same financial burden, which one
bears in private sector universities.
It is important to mention here that
an amount of Rs 33.7 billion for the HEC has been estimated in the budget of
2008-09, as allocated earlier for the outgoing fiscal year out of which Rs
18,000 millions have been allocated for the development projects and 15,766.425
million for current expenditure of the public sector universities.
Dr Riaz
Qurashi, Advisor at Quality Assurance & Learning Innovation Division, HEC,
said that the universities earn from three sources, including HEC
funding, provincial funding and from their own sources.
"The universities about 40 to 70 percent funds acquire from HEC which are mostly
for development projects and recurring grants has not been increased for few
years.
The universities have reservations over the inadequate budget
allocation in terms of non-development budget", he added.
By Asma Ghani (The Nation)
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Varsities in a fix due to non-issuance of notification
Lahore: The Punjab Higher Education Department has yet to issue
notification regarding the abolition of self-finance scheme while the delay has
left universities in a fix to take a final decision about the
matter.
According to sources, following a cut in universities' grants
from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) this year, most of the public sector
universities were against the abolition of self-finance scheme as it was a good
source of revenue for them.
The Punjab government had announced abolition
of the scheme from all the universities and colleges during the budget 2008-09,
while abolition of the same scheme from the medical colleges of the province was
announced by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif before the budget.
It is
important to mention that the Punjab Health Department has recently issued a
notification to end the scheme in medical colleges of the province while the
Punjab Higher Education Department has yet to issue the notification in this
regard.
Interestingly, taking full advantage of the uncertain situation,
most of the universities have kept mum over the issue despite the approaching
admission season.
It is learnt that during the recent meeting of the
Punjab University's deans, chairmen and directors, which finalised admissions
for the coming academic session, the matter about the self-finance scheme was
deliberately ignored and no decision was taken in this regard.
A PU
official, seeking anonymity, said the matter was not discussed in the meeting as
no notification was issued regarding abolition of self-finance scheme. He said
estimates of the scheme were approved by the university's Syndicate in its
budget meeting held before the government decided to abolish the scheme.
"The cut in the universities' grants from the HEC is certainly worrying
for universities," he said, adding: "The decision to abolish the scheme would
add to universities' financial problems". He claimed that the universities were
reluctant to accept abolition of the scheme in the wake of non-issuance of
notification.
When contacted, PU Admission Committee Chairman Prof Dr
Jamil Anwar said the university had not received any notification from the
department concerned in connection with abolition of the scheme.
Replying to a question, he maintained the decision was not notified,
adding: "Therefore, we should go according to our schedule".
An official
of the Government College University (GCU) also confirmed that the notification
was not received yet and there was a confusion regarding admission against
self-finance scheme. GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Aftab was not available
for comments.
VC of the Lahore College for Women
University (LCWU) Prof Dr Bushra Mateen said her university had not received any
notification regarding abolition of the self-finance scheme, however, in a
telephonic conversation, the Secretary Higher Education had told her that all
the seats of the scheme stood abolished. "The seats, earlier filled through
self-finance scheme, will be filled through open merit," she
added.
Secretary Higher Education Arifa Saboohi was not available for her
comments despite repeated attempts.
However, a senior officer of the
department, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that any notification was not
issued yet, adding that it would be issued soon. The News
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