HEC agrees to students’ demand

NUML students petition for granting of MBA degrees after two years instead of three and a half, win.

ISLAMABAD: In light of protests by students of the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), the batch of 2009 will be given MBA degrees after two years instead of the original duration of three and a half years.

According to the NUML administration, these students had originally agreed to the three and a half year MBA programme, but started protesting after the passage of two years that they be given MBA degrees immediately.

On Friday, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) accepted the students’ demands by agreeing to make this ‘one-time’ relaxation for the batch of 2009.

These students had been protesting recently by disrupting normal proceedings of the university. On Tuesday, they locked the university gates and did not allow a bus full of female students to leave the premises for over four hours.

NUML administration had earlier clarified that the programme was introduced in 2009 and all students briefed about the details. While 50 students had left the university with full refunds because they found the programme to be of an unacceptable length, the rest of the students had agreed to the terms. Almost two years after this, they rejected the terms and started protesting.

The HEC agreeing to their demands means that the 50 students who withdrew their admissions did so for a reason that was not implemented.

Mudasir Mukhtar, spokesperson for the university said, “The decision was taken because of the students’ resistance, though it is not in their best interest to be issued these degrees prematurely.”

“Since the programme was being paced for three and a half years, their planned curriculum has not been completed,” said rector of the university Dr Aziz Ahmed Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2010.