QAU academia seeks end GRE condition PhD admission
ISLAMABAD, June 5: The Quaid-i-Azam University Academic Staff Association has resolved to take up the state of PhD programme at the university with the QAU administration and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) as it failed to draw a single candidate during the last seven months.
Speaking at the general body meeting of the association, the faculty members pointed out that normally QAU gave admission to 150-200 students in PhD programme but during the last several months not a single candidate could get admission to the programme due to, what they said, unjust policy of the HEC.They said the condition to pass graduate record examination (GRE) for PhD programmes in Pakistan was discriminatory as the candidates sent to foreign universities for PhD by the HEC did not require to fufil such condition.
They said the QAU was a leading university in Pakistan in terms of research output and the number of PhD students produced and all its PhD theses were evaluated by three examiners from academically advanced countries.
They noted that the GRE condition and the HEC’s warning to withhold funds for QAU had brought the PhD programme at the university to a standstill and discouraged potential PhD students and young faculty members from continuing their research programme and they left it in mid way.
Turning to the issue of raising the PhD/MPhil allowances from Rs5,000 and Rs2,500 per month to Rs10,000 and Rs5,000 per month respectively, the house showed concern on the delay in implementation of a scheme which had already been adopted in all public sector universities of Punjab.
At this point, the issue of revising honorarium from Rs1,000 per hour to Rs2,000 per hour for visiting teachers and for extra teaching by regular faculty of QAU was also raised.
Meanwhile, the meeting expressed with concern that the Computer Centre of the University was systematically being denied its status and responsibilities.Dawan
