The students claimed that the university’s chancellor and owner, Khalid Amin, had threatened to use his political affiliations against them. PHOTO: CREATIVE COMMONS
Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club, the students claimed that they had taken admission in the Indus University's Bachelors of Engineering (BE) programme around three years ago and were now in the final year of the course. Recently, the university administration had informed them that they could not be given BE degrees as the Pakistan Engineering Council had refused to grant them affiliation.
The students questioned that if the university did not have the authority to grant the degrees, why was it running the programme in the first place. The university had been charging Rs50,000 for each semester, they claimed.
The university had offered to issue them Bachelor of Science (BSc) degrees, instead of the BE degrees but the students rejected the idea. They claimed that the university's chancellor and owner, Khalid Amin, had threatened to use his political affiliations against them if they continued to protest.
The students demanded the government take notice of the scam and take strict action against the varsity for putting their futures at risk.
For his part, the varsity's chancellor, Amin, claimed that the students were blowing the issue out of proportion for no reason at all. "The Pakistan Engineering Council, at times, takes up to 15 years to grant accreditation to the engineering batches," he claimed, while speaking to The Express Tribune. "When we receive accreditation for the 2011 batch, we will offer engineering degrees to the students. Why make an issue out of it?"
When asked why the university had offered admissions to the four-year engineering programme without the PEC recognition, Amin brushed off the question by saying that the institution had every right to do so.
He asserted, however, that all the students who were enrolled in the batch had voluntarily transferred to other degree programmes and the university currently had no engineering student on its roll. "The three or four students who have launched a smear campaign against the institution are only playing with their future," he warned.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 22nd, 2014.
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Students who took admission in this university are those who could not get admission in any other recognized university because of their percentage. Problem is that everyone wants to become an engineer whether he deserves or not and such institutions are making them fools which is quite normal.
such universities should be given the lesson once so that they wont be able to play with the future of students anymore
These few students who took the step against Indus University are not the only vicitims. There are number of students who faced such problems back to year 2005 when this so called University didn't have the affiliation with University of Karachi and they were still offering the programs while making false statements to the students about their affiliation. Government should take prompt action agsinst such institutions.