Students against PMDC formula
Around 150 prospective medical students protest against the admissions procedure for medical colleges.
LAHORE:
Around 150 prospective medical students protested against the admissions procedure for medical colleges in front of the University of Health Sciences (UHS) and the Punjab Assembly on Thursday.
The protesting students, all of whom were from Government College University (GCU), want the merit list for admissions based on a UHS formula that gives greater weight to FSc marks, rather than the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) formula that the courts recently upheld.
The students first staged a protest in front of the UHS. After discussions with a UHS spokesman, they moved to the Punjab Assembly on The Mall.
They swept the road with brooms as a symbolic protest, saying they would become sweepers if the government did not let them become doctors.
Some students from Lahore said that under the UHS formula, they would be certain to gain admission to one of the city’s public medical colleges. But under the PMDC formula, they would have to go to a college outside the city.
The students said they had filed a writ petition against the PMDC formula in the Lahore High Court (LHC) and its first hearing would be on October 11. They later dispersed after the Punjab Assembly speaker gave them a hearing in his chambers.
On September 6, the LHC ruled that the UHS must follow the PMDC formula to draw up the merit list for admissions, which ranks candidates according to academic achievement.
The UHS formula gave 70 per cent weight to marks scored in FSc and 30 per cent to marks scored in the entry test. The PMDC formula gives 40 per cent weight to FSC, 10 per cent to matric and 50 per cent to entrance test marks.
The UHS spokesman told The Express Tribune that he had told the protesting students that the university would follow the LHC’s instructions.
The UHS will announce the schedule for admissions after conducting another entrance test on October 14, as per the LHC’s orders, for candidates who scored more than 60 per cent or above in FSc or equivalent examinations and who could not appear in the entrance test held on July 20, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2010.
Around 150 prospective medical students protested against the admissions procedure for medical colleges in front of the University of Health Sciences (UHS) and the Punjab Assembly on Thursday.
The protesting students, all of whom were from Government College University (GCU), want the merit list for admissions based on a UHS formula that gives greater weight to FSc marks, rather than the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) formula that the courts recently upheld.
The students first staged a protest in front of the UHS. After discussions with a UHS spokesman, they moved to the Punjab Assembly on The Mall.
They swept the road with brooms as a symbolic protest, saying they would become sweepers if the government did not let them become doctors.
Some students from Lahore said that under the UHS formula, they would be certain to gain admission to one of the city’s public medical colleges. But under the PMDC formula, they would have to go to a college outside the city.
The students said they had filed a writ petition against the PMDC formula in the Lahore High Court (LHC) and its first hearing would be on October 11. They later dispersed after the Punjab Assembly speaker gave them a hearing in his chambers.
On September 6, the LHC ruled that the UHS must follow the PMDC formula to draw up the merit list for admissions, which ranks candidates according to academic achievement.
The UHS formula gave 70 per cent weight to marks scored in FSc and 30 per cent to marks scored in the entry test. The PMDC formula gives 40 per cent weight to FSC, 10 per cent to matric and 50 per cent to entrance test marks.
The UHS spokesman told The Express Tribune that he had told the protesting students that the university would follow the LHC’s instructions.
The UHS will announce the schedule for admissions after conducting another entrance test on October 14, as per the LHC’s orders, for candidates who scored more than 60 per cent or above in FSc or equivalent examinations and who could not appear in the entrance test held on July 20, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2010.