KU starts issuing computerised degrees

Old practice of issuing manually-prepared degrees restricted to professional disciplines

KARACHI:

The University of Karachi (KU) has started issuing computerised degrees instead of hand-written, which was a practice for the last 70 years. Students will now get degrees in just one month rather than four months. This was stated by controller examination of Karachi University, Dr Zafar Hussain while talking to The Express Tribune.

He said that increasing numbers of students is a big reason of this decision. Hundreds of degrees have to be provided in a day and it is very difficult to write degrees in such a big number. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has instructed to publish all degrees from Pakistan Printing Press.

According to details, degrees of all programmes are prepared in Urdu by professional calligraphers and this practice is a unique heritage of Karachi University.

University of Karachi was founded in 1951 and calligraphers have been preparing degrees for the last 70 years.

The controller of examination further said that the Syndicate of Karachi University had approved the decision to issue computerised degrees in 2018. Now after the permission of the Academic Council, the University has started issuing computerised degrees to the students.

Students who want to go to foreign countries, face problems due to delay in issuing the manually-prepared degrees. Therefore, the University took this decision and with the approval of concerned departments and authorities, has started issuing the computerised degrees. The process is fast and gives benefit to students, he said.

Dr Zafar Hussain further mentioned, "We want to preserve the art of issuing degrees, prepared by the professional calligraphers, as a heritage, so, we decided that degrees of professional disciplines including LLB and medical etc. will be issued on the old format.

He said that many students apply for urgent degrees which takes almost 45 days. While, in some cases, it requires three weeks to four months to issue a degree.

In this situation and with limited manpower, it is difficult to facilitate everyone on time.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2022.