BADIN, Nov 11: Students of the evening program of MBA complained on Monday that the Sindh University had cut to half number of seats in MBA at Sindh University Laar College.

They said that without giving any reason the university reduced seats by 50 per cent from 100 to 50 and stopped issuing admission forms to Laar College for MBA classes since Oct 8.

Ms Fatima Soomro, a student of MBA (Part-I), told Dawn that the university was making admission to all other evening programs excepting MBA, which had given rise to the impression that the university was planning to roll back its MBA program. The university had not declared any admission policy for MBA since then, she added.

Ms Keenjhar Memon, another MBA student, said that in case the university was reducing or abolishing MBA seats in the Laar College, the fate of students studying at present would be pushed into doldrums. No one would be able to go to the university to complete his or her MBA course, especially girls, she feared.

She said that a 50 per cent cut in seats would deprive students of Laar of an opportunity to get higher education near their homes. It had been done only to please the dean of the faculty of business administration at the Sindh University, she said.The director of admission of the Sindh University Mohammad Ali Roshan said that the forms for admission to MBA had been delayed and the university would supply them after Nov 15.

About reasons behind 50 per cent cut in MBA seats, he rejected the impression and said that the university had neither mentioned number of seats in its catalogue of 2008 nor had it reduced their number.

He said that he would recommend 100 seats for the college.

People demanded that the speaker of National Assembly, governor and vice-chancellor of Sindh University direct the authorities not to reduce seats in the evening program for MBA and announce admission policy and provide admission forms without delay. Sindh University has established its branch named Sindh University Laar College to provide higher education to the people living in far-flung areas of lower Sindh.

The college started MBA classes in 2007-08 in which more than 150 students had applied for 100 seats. The college also opened classes for BEd, MEd and MA (education) in 2008-09 to meet demand of Laar students.