Most capital colleges to offer 4-year graduate programme

Plan hinges on approval from QAU syndicate

ISLAMABAD: As many as 15 colleges of the Islamabad Capital Territory plan to offer four-year graduate programmes in various subjects in the upcoming academic sessions which commence next month.

The new four-year Bachelor of Studies (BS) programme will replace the traditional two-year programmes in line with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) plans to phase out the two-year Bachelors of Arts and Bachelors of Science programmes and the two-year Masters of Arts and Masters of Science programmes from 2018 and 2020, respectively.



As per the HEC’s plans, no admission would be granted in the BA or BSc programmes after 2018 while admissions for MA and MSc programmes would be abolished after the academic year 2020.

Most of the universities in Pakistan already offer the four-year BS and BSc (Honours) programmes, ensuring 16 years of education at graduation. However, a number of institutions continue to offer BA, BSc degrees, which means the student would have 14 years of education after graduating.

Similarly, some universities continue to offer MS, M.Phil and MSc (Hons), ensuring 18 years of education after post graduate, while others offer MA, MSc with 16 years of education.



HEC had decided to streamline the bachelor’s and master’s degrees to avoid any confusion among employers in addition to national and international organisations.

In this regards, the over dozen colleges of the capital have set up various committees including liaison, admission, board of studies, and examination to finalise the modalities and formalities of the programme. Moreover, these committees have been meeting officials at the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) and the ICT colleges affiliated to start the programme.

While the QAU has already given its provisional nod to start the programme, but its highest decision-making body has yet to give its go-ahead.



One such meeting was held with the university officials earlier this week. During the meeting, it was decided that colleges should not continue both programmes simultaneously, owing to the dearth of human resource, while the new programme would replace the existing traditional programmes to avoid any confusion.

Students wishing to enrol in the two-year programme, however, will not be offered any option to do so by the colleges.

Girls colleges ready, boys reluctant

An education official said that girls’ colleges in the city were pressing hard to offer the new programmes from the upcoming session in August, however, boys’ colleges were reluctant to do so immediately, and plan to start the programme from the next year.

However, one of the committees’ heads maintained that most of the colleges in the capital were prepared and willing to offer the four-year programme in the upcoming session and that they had decided to present the case at the upcoming meeting of QAU’s academic council scheduled to be held on July 17.

Once approved, the matter would be referred to varsity’s syndicate for their final nod.

Meanwhile, the 15 colleges have submitted a list of subjects in which they are prepared to offer the four-year programme.

Other colleges are also planning to offer the programme in two to five subjects.

For Science subjects, the fee has been fixed at around Rs20,000 for the first semester and Rs13,000 for the subsequent seven semesters. Arts students, on the other hand, would have to pay Rs17,000 for the first and Rs10,000 for subsequent semesters.

The colleges, though, would charge as much as Rs9,979 under various heads such as library and degree fees.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2017.