Following a clarification: Policy on expat students implemented

Development comes after varsity agrees to admit 10 students

LAHORE: The provincial government’s policy of admitting expatriate students on regular fee has been implemented.

The development comes in the wake of a public varsity agreeing to admit 10 students after spirited resistance. The students had been earlier asked to deposit full self-supporting fee by the university in dollars. The University of Gujrat (UoG) had asked candidates seeking admission on these reserved seats to submit $8,000 and an affidavit to agree to pay the fee in place of regular fee.

The government had earlier decided this year to allocate seats for children of overseas Pakistanis and dual-national students on regular fee. The government had converted 76 seats across public medical and dental colleges in this regard. Such candidates were asked to apply on this quota by August 20.

The students had sought the assistance of the University of Health Sciences (UHS) following the UoG’s demand to resolve the matter. The UHS spokesperson told The Express Tribune said some students had complained to the varsity about two universities on this account. “When we contacted the UoG and University of Sargodha (UoS), we were informed that this was the prerogative of the universities’ syndicates,” he said. The UHS spokesperson said the UoS had agreed to admit expatriates following the clarification. He said the UoG had directed such students to deposit fee in dollars and submit an affidavit as it had some reservations.

The spokesperson said some confusion was bound to arise as the policy was being implemented for the first time. “The students have now been admitted on regular fee,” he said.

UoG Nawaz Sharif Medical College Acting Principal Shaista Waheed told The Express Tribune that expatriate students had been admitted to the college. She said they had been intimated about the development. Waheed said only one had not joined the college.

She attributed the delay to amendments under the new policy. Waheed said the students had enrolled at the college on reserved seats and were paying regular fee.

The UHS spokesman said the confusion had arisen as varsities were autonomous and decisions were taken by their syndicates. He said the UoS also had most seats—20—for foreigners that had to be converted to open-merit seats. The spokesperson said the UoS had later agreed to implement the policy after the UHS had contacted its administration and communicated a clarification.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2015.