KARACHI, Oct 5: Con-fusion prevails over the Higher Education Com-mission-recommended bachelor’s programme that, according to teachers at the University of Karachi, has been adopted in haste and without proper consideration.

The frequent changes being made in the programme have also perturbed students, who feel that the administration itself is not clear about the system, Dawn has learnt.

Apart from the fact that the university’s deepening financial crisis poses a serious threat to the survival and effectiveness of the programme, the major criticism has been the very title of the degree. Most of the senior teachers — including the deans of the arts and science faculties — Dawn spoke to, have no clue as to why the programme has been named Bachelor of Studies (BS), contrary to the worldwide practice of declaring such a programme bachelor of arts or bachelor of science.

“I’ve never heard of a bachelor of studies’ degree. I was at the Pakistan Agriculture and Research Council on a two-year deputation when these decisions were made. The degree should be titled bachelor of arts or science as is the practice throughout the world,” said Professor Dr Shahana Urooj, the dean of the faculty of science.

Endorsing her views, Dr Shamsuddin, the dean of arts faculty, said: “Nowhere in the world does such a degree exist. The HEC should have thought about it.” Admitting that the university administration has been facing a number of problems in the programme’s implementation, he said that changes in the system should have been brought at the college level first.

“The change in a system should be systematic. But, our problem is that the colleges are under a separate directorate and the universities are under a different system. The four-year programme can’t be effectively run until changes are made at the college level. This clash of systems would create problems for students,” he observed.

The HEC had introduced the four-year bachelors programme in 2003-04 in a bid to make the Pakistani undergraduate programme compatible with the foreign ones. At present, according to KU registrar Prof M. Raees Alvi, around 9,000 students are enrolled in the four-year BS programme.

A university brochure of the four-year BS programme says: “In most parts of the world, the graduation degree is of 16 years and not of 14 years. To bring the standard of our graduation at par with the rest of the world, it was necessary to have a 16-year degree programme.”

Dr Nasiruddin Khan, the head of the Centralised Science Laboratory, KU, said that the BS programme had been adopted under the HEC’s pressure and without considering the ground realities. “The aim was to make the Pakistani degree compatible with the foreign ones, but the question is how many students from public sector universities go abroad? For most students at KU, four years of study are an additional financial burden.

“There is no excellence involved and all this amounts to a cosmetic change. A real improvement can only be brought if the foundation of our education system is strengthened and investment is made to uplift its standard at the secondary and higher secondary levels. And the few amongst the majority aspiring to get inducted into US educational institutions will still need to take tests for admission to any programme there,” Dr Khan added.

He also said that the BS programme had been extended to four years by introducing a lot of inter-disciplinary subjects. “There are too many additional subjects now which won’t serve the purpose of bringing a qualitative change in education. Also, no government notification has been issued so far which says that the new four-year degree is equivalent to the old masters degree and the holders would be eligible to get the same jobs where the old masters degree is the basic requirement.”

Course missed out

The latest episode concerning the BS programme, however, is the additional course arts students are forced to take in the current semester on account of ignorance of the faculty administration, which missed out one course meant to be offered in the last semester.

“It’s not just the matter of one additional course we are forced to take this semester. Frequent changes have been made since the beginning of the programme. For instance, last year exams were conducted and marks were evaluated under the old system. But from this year, mid-term exams have been introduced that require tests almost every two months while GP (grade-point) system has been introduced for marks evaluation,” a student of economics said, adding that the GP enhanced the passing percentage.

Commenting on the BS programme, Prof Dr Shakeel Farooqi of the department of genetics said: “The way we are conducting the programme is funny. A fully-fledged Pakistani university cannot support more than 10 BS programmes. However, KU has offered the programme in 36 departments so far without considering its resources. Even an American university doesn’t offer BS programmes for each and every department. I fear that in a few years, the BS programme will collapse due to a lack of resources or will become substandard,” he added.

Dr Farooqi, referring to other related problems, said that the HEC recommended a total of 124 to 136 credit hours for the BS programme, though the University of Karachi decided to have 136 credit hours and that too comprised 300, 400, 500 and 600 level courses. “The best American universities offer BS programme with 120 to 124 credit hours with 100, 200, 300 and 400 level courses. At KU, we are offering 500 and 600 level courses at the BS level, which are offered at the MS level in the US,” he said.

For the integration of college students, Dr Farooqi said that the two-year college degree must be re-designated as an associate degree. “An associate degree is an academic degree awarded by college/universities abroad upon completion of a course usually lasting two years. Students with a two-year college diploma are eligible to get admission in the third year of the bachelor’s programme in the university after equivalence, credit and acceptance of their college courses.”

‘No pressure from HEC’

Responding to a number of objections that have been raised against the BS programme, Prof Saleem Memon, convener of KU’s committee on the BS programme, said: “We needed to have an 18-year education at the university level because our degrees of honours and masters were not accepted abroad. There was no pressure from the HEC. The commission is there only to give guidelines. KU was one of the last institutions to adopt this programme and we learnt from the experiences of other universities.”

About the degree’s title, he said that it had been named bachelor of studies because of the many inter-disciplinary subjects it offered. “The programme approved by the academic council is still not perfect and changes can be made if there is a consensus. The degree, however, will indicate the major subject of the student that would explain whether the area of his or her study was arts or science.”

He further said that the new four-year degree was equivalent to the old masters and the holders shall be eligible to get the same jobs where the old masters degree was the basic requirement. “Students have also been given an option to discontinue studies after completing two or three-year education and they will be eligible to get BA and BSc, BCom pass or honours degrees, respectively.”

When asked about the financial burden the introduction of the four-year programme will have on the university, he claimed it had little effect as the HEC had already given funds for the purpose. “We are in the process of establishing the required infrastructure. The university will only have to pay for the cooperative teachers being hired. So, there won’t be much of a problem.”