NED revises admission policy as Karachi’s intermediate passing rate drops

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NED University of Engineering and Technology has revised its admission policy for the 2025/26 academic session, responding to the significantly low pass rates in intermediate exams, Express News reported.

The new policy reduces the weightage of intermediate results for BE and BS admissions and increases the weightage for the entrance test. The merit list will now be prepared based on this updated formula.

The decision follows a sharp decline in the pass rate for intermediate students in Karachi, with the results for pre-engineering and pre-medical students falling to 29% and 35%, respectively.

The policy change comes after a fact-finding committee, led by provincial education minister Syed Sardar Shah, failed to implement its recommendations to address the issue.

The fact-finding report had suggested a 15-20% increase in the marks for physics, chemistry, and mathematics for pre-engineering and pre-medical students. However, the report has yet to be acted upon, and its recommendations have largely been ignored.

In light of these developments, NED University has adjusted its admission criteria. Previously, admissions were based solely on intermediate exam results, but with the poor performance in Karachi's intermediate exams, only students with results of 57% or higher will be eligible to apply for admission. As a result, a large number of students may be excluded from the application process.

The Vice-Chancellor of NED University, Dr Tufail Ahmed, explained that the new weightage system for admissions would be 60% for the entrance test and 40% for the intermediate results. Previously, the weightage was equally divided at 50/50, but this has now been revised.

The academic council’s decision means that the advertisement for admissions will be released in the last week of March. The first entrance test will take place on May 24, followed by the second test on July 12.

The new academic session is scheduled to begin on August 18. This year, 3016 seats across 35 programmes will be offered, with an additional 100 seats added to the intake capacity.

The policy change is part of the university’s ongoing efforts to maintain the quality of its admissions process in response to the challenging circumstances in the education sector.