After much deliberation, the cash-strapped University of Karachi (KU) has decided to once again join the line of educational institutions offering “self-financed” admissions.
For the next academic session, the university will offer five per cent of more than 5,000 seats in its morning programme on self-finance. They will be referred to as “donor seats”.
Admissions for the session starting from January next year kicks off on November 11.
Many public sector universities in Pakistan offer admissions to students on their self-finance schemes. The student has to pay a set amount - usually Rs250,000 - for a seat that is reserved in the department of their choice. This typically happens when a student does not make the cut on the merit list but still wants to pursue an education in that discipline.
The scheme is useful both for the university and the students - the student gets to study the subject of their choice and the university gets a huge amount in a lump sum one-time payment. This does not include the semester fees.
Karachi University started admissions on donor seats back in 1995. The scheme was abolished after 2004, during the first tenure of vice chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui. The suggestion to revive self-financed admissions this year was approved by the deans’ committee on the recommendations of a sub-committee formed at the academic council meeting held on October 10.
The donor seats at the pharmacy department will be offered at the highest cost of Rs500,000 while the amount will be Rs400,000 for the other departments with the science and management science faculties. In the faculty of arts, a candidate will pay Rs300,000 for a donor seat.
The decision was taken keeping in view the imminent financial burden on the university in the absence of grants from the Higher Education Commission, said the KU admissions director, Prof. Dr Khalid Iraqi, while talking to The Express Tribune.
A serious financial crisis has emerged at almost all public sector universities in Pakistan following the government’s decision to slash grants to the Higher Education Commission, which funds research and academics at universities. The situation at Karachi University seems to be far more serious than the other universities, as the reserves from its evening programme appears to have also run out.
In 1995, KU started an evening programme to stabilise its financial affairs. The average fee for the courses taught in evening classes is almost five times higher that that of morning programmes. More than 10,000 students are currently enrolled with around 28 departments offering degree courses in the evening, according to the KU evening programme director, Prof. Dr Abuzar Wajidi.
During the last six months, in absence of the grants from the HEC, KU’s management has used up its evening programme earnings worth Rs550 million to pay salaries to faculty and staff, according to the vice chancellor’s secretariat.
“The evening programme can only be of minor support, similar to the revival of donor seats,” believed Dr Iraqi, who was the convener of the sub-committee that advised the academic council to restart the self-finance scheme.
Another senior professor at KU told The Express Tribune that the university could not manage its finances without HEC’s help. For him, donor seats would only come in handy at a few departments that offered job-oriented and professional degrees like pharmacy, business administration, public administration, chemical engineering, food sciences, visual studies, computer science or mass communication. “Nobody will bother to pay that much to study at the rest of the departments,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 31st, 2012.
COMMENTS (3)
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Good step, but public univerisities must coordinate with private sector to get some financial help.
When IBA and LUMS get heavy money from private sector, why cant public sector universities train students according to the need of private sector. This is how they can generate some money while it will also help produce competent students.
@umer: I won't call this progress. This is more about trying to pay the salaries of the staff at KU. With such an acute shortage, this money can't be spent on research and academics and this is HOW my friend, universities grow, by spending on research, demanding more money from those who can afford does not mean 'progress'.
Good step, this is how unversities grow worldwide. No university of internantional accalim has grown on government alms. Seems we are prgressing in education, though out of necessity.