KU honorary degrees & gold medals

At KU, a year of honorary doctorate degrees and confusion over gold medals
Karachi, Dec 28: Until the protest by BS Programme's passing out graduates during the 22nd Convocation of the University of Karachi (KU), the issue of conferring honorary PhD degree on Federal Interior Minister by the KU remained in the headlines during 2011.

A group of KU's BS Programme passing out students staged a demonstration against the administration of the public sector university during the convocation for not arranging gold medals for the top position holders. This issue was brought into KU administration's notice almost six months before the convocation, however, the authorities concerned failed to find out any solution of the matter.

On the other hand, the KU administration holds the viewpoint that they never award gold medals to the top position holders as these medals were sponsored by private companies and organisations. However, they did not convince the students regarding their policy and asked them to convert their BS Programme into normal B.Sc/M.Sc Programme in order to be eligible to receive gold medals. However, no law or formula for such conversation exists at all.

The KU teachers and students were also disappointed on conferring doctorate degree on a minister who had no major achievement in his field. Dr Rakhman Gul Palari, Assistant Professor at KU's Department of Sindhi, refused to receive a shield from the vice chancellor during the Karachi University Teachers Society's (KUTS) annual function-2011 in protest against awarding PhD degree to Rehman Malik. The teaching community also boycotted the classes and at one stage they were planning to boycott semester and external annual examinations as well.

Nevertheless, the bullying and abusive behaviour of political activists created a lot of scenes at the campus. On a number of occasions, the students associated with the student wings of various political parties, beaten up KU employees, leaving them with no option but to boycott their office work. Ironically, the KU security failed to take any disciplinary action against the hooligans, which clearly reflected the failure of KU administration and its security system.

A faculty member of Department of Philosophy, Alam Shah, was severely manhandled by a group of unidentified youngsters within the KU premises over an incident of rash car driving at the campus. Like many other cases, no action was taken against the people involved in this episode.

Besides such incidents, a number of crime and burglary cases occurred within the campus. The KU shuttle service once again failed to facilitate the students due to which rickshaws and commercial vans had a booming business by operating at the campus.

The students also faced lack of equipment in various departments of KU, with the officials blaming shortage of funds for not meeting the students' requirements. The reports of malpractice and malfunctioning at the semester cell, registration and examination department also disappointed students, teachers and alumni of the KU.

The students passing out from the university were also disheartened on the absence of liaison between the industry and the varsity, which could have helped solve unemployment issue. The politics among the teachers' community harmed the common causes, as the issues like awarding PhD degree to Rehman Malik, taking action against students involved in attacking teacher(s), and KU employees-students clashes could not be resolved. Such attitude makes one form an opinion that the teachers were giving more importance to their personal issues rather than taking interest in the affairs of the alma mater.

But despite such circumstances the university accomplished a positive task of establishing computer lab for the visually impaired students at the Department of Library and Information Science this year. The university also awarded 190 PhD degrees in 2011, which was the highest figure of this sort till date.

Besides, the Academic Board of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) approved four-year BS (double majors in mathematics and economics) programme this year. It would be the first programme of its kind in the public sector university in Pakistan. The classes are scheduled to begin in February, 2012.

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KU reschedules aptitude tests
Karachi: Aptitude tests for Applied Physics (BS evening) and Masters in Computer Science (MCS) of Karachi University (KU) are rescheduled to take place on Thursday, December 29 at 10am, a university official said. However, admission tests for MBA, BSSE and BSCS will be held on December 28 at 10am as per schedule. The news

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KU declares LLB Part II annual exam result
Karachi: The University of Karachi (KU) Examinations Department Monday declared the result of LLB Part II Annual Examination 2011. As per the statics of the result, 715 candidates were registered, 697 appeared in the examinations out of which 220 students were declared successful. The pass percentage of the results remained 31.56 percent. It is pertinent to mention here that the results of three candidates were withheld due to objections on enrolment. Daily times

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Classes for NED's new batch to begin on January 2
Karachi: Muhammad Ali Ismail of the NED University's Computer and Information System Engineering Department has been declared successful for receiving a PhD degree, Registrar Engineer Javed Aziz Khan said on Monday.

His thesis topic is 'design of a parallel multi-threaded programming model for multi-core processor'. Khan also said that the 'orientation programme' for the first-year undergraduates would be held on Saturday, December 31, in the institute's auditorium. On the orientation day, senior students would not be allowed to enter the campus.

He said it was compulsory for all newcomers to attend the programme but in special cases, application must be submitted before December 31. Classes of the new batch would commence from January 2. "The first-year students must also bring their admission receipt to enter the university premises," he added.

LLB Part II exam results: The controller examinations of the University of Karachi (KU) on Monday announced the results of LLB Part II Annual Examination 2011. According to the gazette, 715 candidates registered and 697 students appeared in the exams. Some 220 candidates were declared pass while the overall passing percentage was 31.56.

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FUAAST convocation rehearsals on 29th: Federal Urdu
Karachi: University for Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) students who have registered for the convocation have been directed to come for rehearsals at 9am, the university registrar said on Monday.

Professor Dr Qamar Ul Haq said the students could collect their registration cards and convocation gowns from the Institute's Gulsahn-e-Iqbal campus till December 28 as the convocation would be held on Thursday in the Expo Centre. Cameras and cell phones would not be allowed in during the convocation, he said. The news

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Lyari varsity admission date
Karachi: Management of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University, Lyari has extended the last date for submission of admission forms for BBA, BCom, BPA, BS/BCS (Computer Science) BS/BA programmes for session 2012 up to Jan 20. An official of the institution said Tuesday that it has also been decided that those candidates who passed their Intermediate in 2009, 2010 and 2011 are eligible for admission to the morning classes. Those who have passed their Intermediate in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, are eligible for admission to the evening programme, it was further stated. app

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