PhD entrance marks raised by 10%

Karachi University raises the bar per new HEC policy

KARACHI:

University of Karachi (KU) has updated its admission policy in line with the new PhD policy introduced by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Starting next week, admissions for MPhil and PhD at KU will adhere to this revised policy. The approval for implementing the new policy was granted recently during an academic council meeting chaired by Vice Chancellor Dr Khalid Iraqi.

It's important to note that admissions for MPhil and PhD programmes at KU will commence on June 23. The entrance test is scheduled for July 28, and the session will commence from September 1. Under the revised policy, the passing marks for the PhD entrance test have been raised from 50 to 60 per cent.

As per the updated criteria, candidates who score at least 60 per cent marks in the PhD entrance test will be considered eligible. However, the passing marks for the MPhil entrance test will remain at 50 per cent.

Professor Dr Anila Amber Malik, Convener of Post Graduate Studies Admission Committee of KU told the Express Tribune that according to new policy of HEC, passing marks of test for admission to PhD have been increased.

She said that now CGPA limit for MPhil has been reduced from 3 to 2.6 which constitute about 70 per cent marks, earlier this ratio was higher.

Dr Anila Amber said that in policy of HEC, more relaxation was given in CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) for admission to PhD after MPhil. However, the Academic Council has fixed the CGPA limit at 2.6. She said that the existing rules regarding paper publication in PhD have been tightened.

She said that it is mandatory for the students to publish their thesis in a journal of category X, in case of not publishing the paper in category X, it is mandatory to publish two research papers in the journal of category Y.

Dr Anila said that if KU had not accepted the condition, the student would have faced difficulties in registering with the Pakistan Country Directory (PCD). She also informed that for the first time intra-disciplinary admission has been allowed at MPhil/PhD level.

According to this decision, a candidate who has done bachelor's degree from one faculty can apply for admission in another faculty, and if the criteria are fulfilled, the student can also be admitted. However, these conditions will be determined by the concerned Departmental Research Committee (DRC) while in case of admission, the student will have to do deficiency courses of 9 to 12 credit hours.

To a question, Dr Anila said that KU did not accept HEC new policy of sending PhD theses to 500 top ranking universities for evaluation. This condition also included that otherwise these theses had to be sent to two nationally distinguished professors.

However, many disciplines do not have distinguished professors in the country. Also, it is not necessary that the top 500 universities have all the disciplines in which the candidate is pursuing PhD. So instead of this point theses will be sent to developing countries. It should be noted that they are starting from next week.