Master’s degree: Over 50% candidates may not be able to sit exams

Peshawar university withholds roll number slips of students who have not cleared their dues.

PESHAWAR:

More than half of the registered candidates will not be able to sit the annual master’s degree exams that are scheduled to begin on Wednesday, it has been learnt.

Official sources of the of the University of Peshawar (UoP) told The Express Tribune that more than 50 per cent of the students have not been issued roll number slips.

One official said that roll number slips of a number of candidates have been withheld because they had not cleared their dues.

UoP Controller Examination Rasheed Khan said his department worked even during Eid holidays to issue roll number slips to all private and regular candidates and blamed the university administration for the lapse. “Had the administration been strict and cleared these issues of payment of dues with the candidates, we would not be confronting this issue today,” he said.

Khan said a total of 30,918 students, including 1,309 female candidates, registered for the annual Master’s degree exams this year; of these, which 25,721 are private candidates and the remaining are regular. The students will give their exams at 67 centres in different parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

An official in the university’s treasurer office, requesting anonymity, said there was a delay in payment of dues on part of the students because the university usually gives 15 per cent concession to poor students enrolled in the morning session, whereas those in the evening session are enrolled free of charge.

However, because the university recently suffered losses of around Rs20 million, these concessions could not be provided to poor students. He added that the free for Master’s programme is Rs20,570 for the morning session and Rs50,000 for the evening session.

Waqas Ahmad, a student of International Relations in the evening session said he usually gives his fee in instalments, but the facility was not provided this year. Ishaq Khan, a private student of MA English who did no receive his roll number slip, rebuked the university administration for the lapse.

Qayyum Shah, a student of the Social Works Department at the university, said, “Most of the students here belong to middle class families who have a plethora of financial issues.” He said the university administration needs to understand that nearly every student faces financial constraints and cannot pay the high amount at once.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2012.