Shot in the dark: Nearly 11,000 students appear for MUET entry test

Several students fail to meet criteria as they had applied for admission before receiving inter results

HYDERABAD: Around 10,666 students appeared on Sunday for the entry test of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology's (MUET) main campus at Jamshoro and Khairpur campus for admission in the academic year 2016-2017.

This year, for the first time the university opened its admissions before the announcement of the intermediate boards' results. This reportedly led to confusion among many students because of the varsity's eligibility criteria for admission on merit, which is the scoring of at least 60% marks in intermediate exams.

The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Hyderabad, which covers ten districts of Hyderabad and Nawabshah divisions, had declared the intermediate results on September 12.  However, the last date of submitting admission forms in MUET was earlier fixed for August 27 but was later delayed to September 7.



"Many students who secured less than 60% marks [in the board exams] had applied for the admission paying Rs3,200 for the form. They wouldn't have applied [for admission] if either the result was announced before the admissions or the varsity had waited for the boards to notify the results," pointed out an official of the university's administration, requesting anonymity.

Reasons for early admission

The university also justified holding the admission process earlier. "The credit for initiating the process for starting the classes as per the international academic calendar goes to MUET in Sindh province," said vice-chancellor Muhammad Aslam Uqaili in a statement issued on Sunday.

He explained that the university aims to begin the new academic year from October instead of January to save four months of students. However, due to delay on part of the inter boards, it will take some years for MUET to accomplish this objective as the classes of the 2016-17 batch will begin from November this year. According to Uqaili, the four-month delay harms the prospects of MUET's graduating students to get scholarships, fellowships and jobs in multinational companies.

However, this reform is coming at the cost of affecting a segment of the students as a lack of synchronisation between the boards' results and the university admissions continues. The students who get percentages in 60s or closer to but less than 60 in the first year exams are the ones mostly affected, an official explained.

"If any student who obtained 63% or 59% marks in first year exams submitted the form expecting to maintain or increase, respectively, that percentage in inter exams but ends up getting less than 60%, the money they paid for the form will be wasted," he said, illustrating hypothetically.

Reserved seats

Among 2,031 seats, as many as 1,263 are reserved for merit including 983 in the main campus, which offers admission in 18 teaching disciplines, and 280 in Khairpur, which has six teaching disciplines. As per the district-based quota, Hyderabad division is given 420 seats, Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah divisions have 154 each, Larkana division has 130, Sukkur division has 104 and Karachi has 21 at the main campus.

In Khairpur campus, 129 seats are reserved for the Sukkur division, 65 for Larkana division, 46 for Hyderabad division, 27 for Mirpurkhas division and four for Karachi. The official also pointed out a problem in the self-finance seats, as all the applicants have been made to pay fees at the time of submitting the forms. Some 578 seats on self-finance in the main campus and 60 in the Khairpur campus have been offered in three separate categories with Rs840,000, Rs682,500 and Rs577,500 admission fee. The students who fail to qualify the entry-test for the self-finance seat will be refunded the fee.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2016.