The faculty members and administration of University of the Punjab is not the same page on the decision of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan to halt admissions in 27 PhD and 33 MPhil/ MS equivalent programs offered by the varsity.
The PU administration vowed to make PhD and MPhil programs as per national and international standards and remove all the reservations pointed out by the quality assurance agency of HEC. On the other hand, during a meeting on Friday, various heads of teaching departments of Punjab University expressed their serious concerns over the recent directives of HEC of stopping further admissions in various MPhil and PhD programs.
The HEC report published few days ago states that the degrees won't be attested if the PU didn't comply with the order. The Commission took the decision of halting degrees on the report of its quality assurance agency team which visited the university on January 22-23, 2019. The university offers at least 55 PhD and over 70 MPhil programs.
Earlier, PU VC Dr Niaz Ahmed in a press statement vowed to make PhD and MPhil programs as per national and international standards and remove the reservation of student-teacher ratio pointed out by the HEC. He had directed the departments not to offer admissions in programs lacking HEC criteria.
However, chairing a meeting of heads of all teaching departments on Friday, the vice chancellor again pledged to remove all the concerns of HEC. He also said that under PU's own review system, the university did not announce admissions in Spring semester this year to ensure quality education in MPhil and PhD programs. He said the university administration itself took this decision three months ago before the report of HEC.
PU Registrar Dr Muhammad Khalid Khan has said the quality assurance agency of HEC had appreciated most of MPhil and PhD programs in the university. During the meeting, various heads of teaching departments expressed their serious objections and concerns over the HEC report. They pointed out that data of some departments in the report was not true which should be rectified and sent back to the HEC for its review of the report. On the request of faculty members, the vice chancellor constituted a committee to prepare true data of MPhil and PhD programs.
Raising objections on the report, senior professors said that the HEC team had worked in haste and it just held meetings with representatives of 80 departments in two days and did not reconcile the anomalies at the time of data collection. They also said that this problem raised question over the capacity of HEC team as well. They urged the HEC chairman to take notice of the report and issue disclaimer in this regard. Another professor said the HEC report had given an impression that there was low standard of education in some MPhil and PhD program offer by PU.
They said all those programs in which the HEC team had advised to stop further intake of students had been accredited by the HEC and NOC of all such program has also been issued.
A PU dean said that in the past a PhD student had to complete his/her PhD within four and half years. However, he said, the HEC has increased this time limit to eight years which was increasing burden of students on the departments. He said many students wish to take maximum time to complete their PhD as they were doing job in Lahore and wanted to enjoy the most affordable accommodation and other facilities at hostel.
He also said there were serious anomalies in the data of HEC report as it has misrepresented the true data. He said in some of MPhil programs, two coursework were offered instead of thesis but HEC team had considered those students in the category of students who are doing thesis only.
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