Nursing candidates stage protest at Dow University

They claim the varsity has cancelled their admissions, a day before classes were to start

KARACHI: Dozens of nursing candidates and their parents staged a protest and held a sit-in against the administration of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) on Monday, alleging that the university had cancelled their admission without any reason.

The protesters claimed that the university administration had confirmed their admission into the BS Nursing programme in the first week of January, adding that they had also paid the fees for the programme to the university.

Shouting slogans at the university premises, the candidates and their parents asked the university admission to "cancel their illegal orders." Hailing from Karachi, Nawabshah, Sukkur, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas and other cities across Sindh, the protesters even attempted to stop the car of DUHS vice chancellor Prof Saeed Qureshi, but were paid no heed.

"I am a poor father of a daughter who earned admission into the programme on merit," said Haji Mukhtiar Mallah, one of the protesters. "We completed all the admission procedures, including the written test, oral exam and admission fees," he maintained, adding that the university administration had confirmed his daughter's admission.

Mallah said that his daughter, Asma Naz, appeared in the oral exam on January 2. "I received a call at 11pm on January 5, telling me to submit the fees and provide the receipt by the next day or else her admission would be cancelled," he narrated. "I had to arrange for the money within the hour, which was a difficult task for me."

He said that urgently arranging for the fees, which amounted to Rs172,146, he had reached the university with the receipt the next day. "We did as they instructed, but it is an injustice for us and our children if their admissions are cancelled without any solid reason.

Another father, Abdul Majeed Khoso, said that he was told to send his daughter to attend classes from January 13. "On January 12, they informed us to take back our documents and fees because the admissions had been cancelled," he went on to say. "What kind of system does the university have? I thought it was just my daughter whose admission had been cancelled, but when I reached the DUHS campus, I found dozens of candidates and their parents protesting the same issue."

The varsity administration, on the other hand, told a different story. "The admissions process is still underway," the varsity's spokesperson told The Express Tribune. "We haven't cancelled any admissions yet," he claimed, adding that the candidates would be informed about admissions once the process was completed.

Yet, according to Khoso, the merit list for admissions had been issued on the DUHS website. "I have the screenshots of it," he added. Copies of the screenshots are available with The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2020.