Admissions season: DCET extends deadline to October 25

Admission forms were unavailable in rural Sindh since last week.

KARACHI:

The Dawood College of Engineering and Technology (DCET) has been forced to extend the deadline for submission of admission forms to October 25, because the forms were not available to students in rural Sindh, The Express Tribune learnt on Wednesday.

Today (October 18) was supposed to be the last day for the submission of the forms, but DCET admissions director Engr. Abdul Waheed Bhutto confirmed that the forms were unavailable in Hyderabad, Tando Allah Yar and other districts in the province since last week.

The college began its admissions process on October 1, and sent around 5,000 admission forms and prospectuses to National Bank of Pakistan branches in district and taluka headquarters of the province.

“The problem emerged when all 5,000 application forms were sold before the [October 18] deadline,” said Bhutto. He admitted that the university was informed of the issue in advance, but failed to act in a timely manner. DCET has received around 3,500 completed applications as of now, he added.

We will advertise the extension in the deadline in newspapers and print and send an additional 500 forms to NBP branches, said Bhutto.

The college has already announced that it would simultaneously conduct the entrance test for applicants in Karachi, Sukkur and Islamabad on November 18. Like last year, the Muhammad Ali Jinnah University will conduct the test on behalf of DCET to ensure transparency. Successful applicants are expected to be called in for interviews in December.

DCET is offering a total of 562 seats across nine disciplines, with 173 of those seats reserved for students from rural Sindh. These students are also eligible to apply for 100 self-finance seats.

Academic and administrative activities at the college have been suspended since October 11, as teachers have gone on an indefinite strike after a professor was beaten by a student organisation. The college presently has no permanent principal to look after the situation.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2012.