SZABUL flips admission list again

Within a month, the varsity issued merit lists for admissions twice before replacing it with a third one

KARACHI: When the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University of Law (SZABUL) was established as the first-ever law university in Sindh, the government was lauded for its commitment toward promoting higher education in the province.

With a recent change of management, however, questions are being raised on the university's academic reputation after it abruptly changed the admission criteria ahead of the new academic session. As a result, the university spread confusion among students by issuing the merit list for admissions twice before replacing it with a third one - all within a month.

The sudden changes deprived at least 50 per cent of students - whose names previously appeared on the merit list - of enrollment in the law programme. Students who had even deposited admission fees have been directed to reclaim their money.

SZABIST confers degrees upon its largest batch so far

Sources say that students who earlier failed to qualify the internal test conducted by the university have been awarded admission in the five-year LLB programme as per the latest merit list. Earlier, in accordance with the fixed merit, 100 students were granted admissions. After abruptly changing the admission criteria, however, more than 150 students have been admitted to the programme.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, many students - whose names appeared in the first and second lists - expressed anger and disappointment, saying that they do not wish to take their fee back as they deserve to be admitted to the university.

The university has issued an official notification on its website where it has confirmed that owing to an inadvertent error, a new list has been issued after rectification. However, the new list does not include the marks awarded to each candidate in the internal test.

An administrative officer at SZABUL said that after the issuance of the first admission list, the newly-appointed vice-chancellor, former justice Dr Rana Muhammad Shamim summoned a meeting and directed the university's academic and administrative officials to either increase the number of allocated admission seats or replace the previously-issued merit list with a new one.

Per sources, the VC maintained that once the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) conducts the Law Admission Test (LAT), it should be considered the sole criteria for admission and there is no need for the university to hold an internal test. The VC, therefore, ordered the officials to issue a new admission list, excluding the marks of the internal test. Sources also shared that some officers objected to the proposition put forth by the VC, however, most people readily accepted the orders.

400 students awarded degrees in different disciplines

When admissions were initially announced, the university received more than 1,400 applications from candidates who had already cleared their LAT. Since the varsity had only 100 seats to offer, it decided to conduct an internal test on top of the LAT.

When approached, the Director of Admission SZABUL Wasif Quddus said that he is not authorised to comment on the matter, adding that the university's director of public relations is the right person to talk about it.

Vice-Chancellor Rana Muhammad Shamim said that the varsity conducted the internal test on his very first day of joining, hence, he was unaware of the details of the matter. After a few days, however, the Pakistan Bar Council objected to the matter and stressed that the LAT conducted by the HEC should be the only criterion for admission.

On being questioned if the merit list issued earlier was in line with the varsity's announced admission policy, he said that even though the sudden withdrawal of the list has deprived many students of admission, the orders of the Supreme Court cannot be disobeyed.

"Granting admission per the previous admission criteria would be a violation of the SC order," said the VC. "We cannot continue the practice if the past management had been granting admissions this way."

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2019.