Mardan varsity: Only 10 per cent post-grad students clear NTS test

Not a single student made the grade for Islamic Studies dept

PESHAWAR: Only 10 per cent of 3,500 post-graduate students seeking admission in MPhil and PhD courses in the Mardan-based Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU) cleared the National Testing Service (NTS) examination.

The university announced the NTS test for admissions in the 2017-18 session in the last week of November.

According to the results, none of the students who appeared in the NTS test secured adequate marks to secure admission in the Islamic Studies department.

The students who failed the test complained that the questions were out of the course.



A female student who topped in Islamic Studies from the Islamic International University, Islamabad, alleged that the university had deviated from research rules set by the HEC.

She declared that the question paper was out of course and accused the university administration of using the NTS test as a means to raise funds for the cash-starved university.

Similarly, around 600 students had applied for MPhil and PhD in computer science, physics, biology, chemistry departments at AWKU’s Shankar Campus. Of the total, just 40 students passed the test while 560 failed.

A senior faculty member of the university, who wished not to be named, said that the university had a limited teaching faculty for supervising research work at the university. “The university is near financial collapse,” he said.

According to him, though the university failed to adjust 200 students for research in 50 departments, it hired 200-plus teaching staff, yet there was no faculty member.

The NTS result showed that a few students succeeded in securing admission in some subjects at the university. The university had also announced MPhil admissions in Islamic Studies but none of the students passed the NTS test.



Another teacher, who spoke to this correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said that the university would have no student carrying out research work in the Islamic Studies, bio sciences, chemistry and other subjects.

The university’s spokesperson Abid Khan said that the university had conducted the test in accordance with the HEC policy. He said that if anyone failed the test, it was not the fault of the students.

Most students, who failed the NTS test, said that most of the questions in the exam paper were irrelevant, maintaining that the test was just a ruse to mint money.

The AWKU Mardan had printed advertisements soliciting young students to apply for admissions in MPhil and PhD in local newspapers, setting Rs1,000 as the fee for the admission test in MPhil courses while the fee for students appearing in PhD courses was as high as Rs1,500.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2016.