KARACHI – The University of Karachi (KU) on Monday called a meeting of its academic council on January 20 to decide the fate of the university’s BS and MS programmes.
The university has decided to hold the meeting after it received no response from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to its recommendations that it should be provided funds and expertise to run these programmes.
The KU management had recommended to the HEC to restore the BA, BSc, MA, MSc and MPhil programmes because it lacked funds and the expertise for the BS and MS programmes.
The university had made the recommendations after consulting the professors of all departments. The head of departments were of the view that the KU would need to make more appointments to implement the HEC orders.
It also informed the HEC that the syllabus would have to be revised to implement the new international education standards.
If the BS and MS programmes are scrapped, the future of around 20,000 students, who completed the four-year BS programme in December 2010, would be in jeopardy.
This year, the KU has given 20,000 admissions to candidates in the BS programme, which started on Monday.
“The KU administration has written a letter to the HEC to reinstate the BA, BSc, MA, MSc and MPhil programmes and scrap the BS and MS programmes as the KU lacks the expertise and funds to run them and the HEC has not responded to the university’s recommendations,” said KU Pro-Vice Chancellor Shahana Urooj Kazmi. She said the university had called for a one-point agenda session of the academic council to discuss the issue of the BS and MS system.
