UoL students oppose degrees name change

Inclusion of the department of electronics in faculty of information technology (IT) at the University of Lahore (UoL) has sparked anger among students of the department, which might affect their future plans, Pakistan Today has learnt. The name of the Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Communication degree has been changed into Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Electrical Systems (BEES). Students fear that the step taken by the varsity administration would be a disaster for their future, as no varsity will allow them further education in electronics engineering while industries will also hesitate to recruit UoL graduates. It has been learnt that educational programmes under the department of electronics, including BEES and Masters of Science in Electronics and Electrical Systems (MEES) are not recognised by the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), a body which regulates engineering programmes.
Students claim that the varsity administration deliberately did not recognise its electronics engineering programme from the PEC because it was not willing to fulfill conditions of the PEC. PEC demands 60 percent marks in Intermediate or A Levels for admission in an engineering programme but the varsity’s programme was only affiliated with the Higher Education Commission (HEC), which demands only 45 percent marks for admission, a UoL student, seeking anonymity, told Pakistan Today. He said that the varsity wanted to admit maximum students, therefore, the electronics engineering programme was not recognised. The student criticised the varsity administration saying that the administration was charging more than Rs 0.5 million from each student and normally 200 students enrolled in the electronics engineering programme but only 40 or 50 students remain to compete the degree while others migrate to other varsities.
UoL Controller Examinations Malik Aslam said that he did not receive any official notification that the name of the degree has been changed. He said that faculty of the department of electronics has not been changed, as the varsity recently divided departments into respective faculties and before that the administration used to mention only the department’s name instead of the faculty. On being contacted, UoL Registrar Karam Elahi said that he was unaware of the issue.
The UoL administration is denying that the name of the degree has been changed but the latest prospectus revealed that the name of the degree is Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Electrical Systems instead of Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Communication. All other UoL engineering programmes are under faculty of engineering, including Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.
Another UoL student, seeking anonymity, said that since start of the BEES programme, students got admission in order to pursue engineering education. He said that having an electronics degree under the faculty of IT would be equivalent to a simple computer science degree. He asked the varsity administration to end the prevailing confusion.
Talking to Pakistan Today, a PEC official said that the body could not accept the degrees of those students who pursued their engineering education in an unauthorised programme. He asked students to confirm authorisation of the programme by visiting the PEC’s website. UoL students claim that they might launch a full-fledged protest because ultimately, students would suffer in agitation against the varsity. Students have started to protest on social networking website Facebook. A UoL student shared on Facebook, “Why university officials are not paying any attention on the ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION department? Why the degree title name is changing? With the fact that students of electronics department of UoL are better than students of many other departments. Why owner & high officials are changing its degree title?” According to owner of the Facebook page, which might not be an UoL official, said, “Faculty doesn’t matters just your subjects and grades will”.