Education woes: Is quality education alone enough?
QAU seems unable to provide basic facilities to its students.
ISLAMABAD:
Though ranked among the most reputable public sector institutes of the country, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) seems unable to provide basic facilities to its students.
University students, who have held numerous protests demanding the provision of facilities, said the reason is because the university has not improved on its infrastructure despite the increase in enrolment. The institute is one of the largest universities of the country and being a federal institute, it has to accommodate students from across the country.
In recent protests, students of QAU have demanded more university buses, enhanced on-campus shuttle services and improvement of hostel services, which included provision of clean drinking water, cheaper, hygienic meals, reducing load shedding hours and provision of internet facility. They also demanded that the university’s library and laboratories be renovated and the number of hostels, particularly for female students, be increased.
But the strikes were eventually called off after the administration ensured students that their demands would be met. The students, however, are still unsure if their burgeoning issues will be resolved anytime soon, as the university administration has made such promises in the past but failed to hold their end of the deal.
Leaders of the university’s student councils have vowed to take the streets again if the administration fails to fulfil their charter of demands. However, when contacted, QAU Registrar Dr Shafiqur Rehman said, “The students need to realise that the facilities they are demanding are already being provided to them.”
Talking to The Express Tribune, QAU student Naseem Niazi said that the number of water filtration plants in the institute is insufficient to meet the needs of the student body. “We have to either drink unhygienic water or purchase bottles of mineral water to quench our thirst,” he said. He also complained that the meals served in university’s hostels are not only expensive but also of substandard quality. A student doing his MPhil from the university complained that nearly half the computers in the computer labs are out of order and students are facing many difficulties in conducting research work. Another student, Jamil Khan said, “The [university] administration is aware of our problems, but when we demand for our rights, they call it ‘breach of discipline’ and threaten to expel us from the university.”
A staff member from the Public Administration department expressed concern over the administration’s inability to provide basic facilities and noted that his department does not have clean drinking water facility. “We bring clean water from home
but that that is not a permanent solution to the problem,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 25th, 2011.
Though ranked among the most reputable public sector institutes of the country, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) seems unable to provide basic facilities to its students.
University students, who have held numerous protests demanding the provision of facilities, said the reason is because the university has not improved on its infrastructure despite the increase in enrolment. The institute is one of the largest universities of the country and being a federal institute, it has to accommodate students from across the country.
In recent protests, students of QAU have demanded more university buses, enhanced on-campus shuttle services and improvement of hostel services, which included provision of clean drinking water, cheaper, hygienic meals, reducing load shedding hours and provision of internet facility. They also demanded that the university’s library and laboratories be renovated and the number of hostels, particularly for female students, be increased.
But the strikes were eventually called off after the administration ensured students that their demands would be met. The students, however, are still unsure if their burgeoning issues will be resolved anytime soon, as the university administration has made such promises in the past but failed to hold their end of the deal.
Leaders of the university’s student councils have vowed to take the streets again if the administration fails to fulfil their charter of demands. However, when contacted, QAU Registrar Dr Shafiqur Rehman said, “The students need to realise that the facilities they are demanding are already being provided to them.”
Talking to The Express Tribune, QAU student Naseem Niazi said that the number of water filtration plants in the institute is insufficient to meet the needs of the student body. “We have to either drink unhygienic water or purchase bottles of mineral water to quench our thirst,” he said. He also complained that the meals served in university’s hostels are not only expensive but also of substandard quality. A student doing his MPhil from the university complained that nearly half the computers in the computer labs are out of order and students are facing many difficulties in conducting research work. Another student, Jamil Khan said, “The [university] administration is aware of our problems, but when we demand for our rights, they call it ‘breach of discipline’ and threaten to expel us from the university.”
A staff member from the Public Administration department expressed concern over the administration’s inability to provide basic facilities and noted that his department does not have clean drinking water facility. “We bring clean water from home
but that that is not a permanent solution to the problem,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 25th, 2011.