– Rs1000 to Rs1500, non-refundable ‘fee’ charged for applying for a job by universities
–Applicants demand an audit of all universities, testing services
ISLAMABAD: In what seems to be a tragic new trend, universities in league with testing agencies are looting graduates by advertising posts but not making any appointments on the advertised slots.
It has come to Pakistan Today’s attention that various universities advertised posts and sought applications from aspiring candidates and then postponed the tests and interviews out of the blue, giving no compensation to the affected applicants.
While speaking to this scribe, a few of the affected graduates voiced great concerns over the malpractice that continues in educational institutions, terming it a clear scam to mint money from jobless youths. They told that universities were charging a fee ranging from Rs1000 to Rs1500 for multiple job posts for which thousands of students apply for yet, they are rarely called to appear for evaluations.
They revealed that the same posts were advertised time after time, and applicants are charged the fee again, regardless of whether they had already applied for the said posts.
In one such incident, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi (FJWU) recently advertised a number of posts of various grades and the applicants were charged a heavy application fee; unsurprisingly, the university suddenly dropped the idea of hiring sans intimating any candidates. The posts, ranging from BPS 17 to 21, were advertised on October 11 and sought applicants who were preferably female graduates.
“Jinnah Women University (JWU), Rawalpindi is looking to recruit highly educated, experienced, hardworking and well-disciplined candidates for the positions of Director Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation ORIC (BPS-20), ITC Director (BPS 19), Sports Director (BPS 19) female only, Additional Treasurer (BPS 19), Chief Medical Officer (BPS 19) female only, Manager of University-Industry Linkages ORIC (BPS 19), Network Administrator (BPS 18), Resident Medical Officer (BPS 17), Head Nurse (BPS 17), Faculty Coordinator (BPS 17), Assistant Registrar (BPS 17), and Assistant Librarian (BPS 17).
A candidate who had applied for the post of Sports Director in FJWU paid Rs1500 as application fee. She was quite optimistic about being selected for the post as she fulfilled all the mentioned requirements for the position. However, she lamented that she never got a call regarding any test, evaluation or interview from the university, soon after which she came to know that the recruitment process had stopped.
The dejected applicant said that it was surely not the first or only case as she had noticed that the varsity had repeatedly advertised the posts, a good source of income as it must be. Millions of rupees can be collected through this technique.
Another affected candidate who had applied for the post of Assistant Registrar said that she had suffered the same fate as the university had cancelled its hiring plans abruptly.
She said that the sudden cancellation of the interviews has strengthened the perception that universities merely advertised posts to mint money from the jobless youth. The visibly irate candidate demanded the government to conduct an audit of all universities and testing services to find out where the varsities spent the money collecting through applications on which no appointments were made since nobody had ever gotten a refund.
Similarly, another candidate revealed that Fatima Jinnah is not the only university involved in this “business”, as many other universities are also on the same path.
The candidate told Pakistan Today that he had applied for a post in Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi (PMAS-Arid Agriculture University) and has been waiting for an interview call to this day. He lamented that in most cases, the universities advertised posts only to adjust the people who were already working there and collecting money from jobless graduates is an additional benefit for such institutions.
When this scribe contacted, FJWU PRO Saleem Shah said that the university advertised vacancies because there is a shortage of staffers. However, he said that it was the government’s decision to put a ban on recruitments and universities were left with no option but to follow the government’s policy.