Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Almost all federal universities, both in the public and private sector, have refused to conduct their admission tests through the Education Testing Council (ETC), Daily Times has learnt.

The ETC was formulated by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2016 in compliance with a Lahore High Court (LHC) judgment, delivered in 2014. The purpose of this entity is to conduct admission tests for all recognised universities and degree awarding institutes (DAIs).

Last month, the HEC directed to the vice chancellors, rectors and heads of all public and private sector universities to conduct tests for admissions through the ETC. “As announced at the ETC commencement ceremony and approved in the first meeting of the council held on May 6, 2017, the ETC will be launching tests for admission to undergraduate programmes from Fall 2017, during first half of July 2017 in five broad categories including engineering, medical, basic and natural sciences, management sciences and social sciences, arts and humanities,” it stated.

The HEC set June 16 as deadline for universities to submit their response in this regard.

According to information, a majority of the varsities across the country, particularly in the Punjab and the federal capital, have not asked the candidates to appear in the ETC’s admission tests in their advertisements. Instead, they have followed their own testing mechanisms.

Currently, there are 1,110 HEC recognised institutions, including universities and their sub-campuses, recognised by the commission, affiliated colleges and foreign collaboration institutes.

The list of federal universities comprises Quaid-i-Azam University, the National University of Sciences and Technology, the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, the Air University , the Bahria University, the Allama Iqbal Open University, the Capital University of Science and Technology, the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Sciences and Technology, the Foundation University, the Institute of Space Technology, the International Islamic University, the Muslim Youth University, the National Defense University, the National University of Computer and Emerging, the National University of Modern Languages, the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, the Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Riphah International University, the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University and the Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University Pakistan.

Almost all of above federal universities have published their admission advertisements for fall 2017 in national dailies. They have asked candidates to appear in universities’ own admission entry tests instead ETC.

Daily Times spoke to many officials and some heads of such universities. A majority of them have rejected the ETC. A vice chancellor of public sector varsity said that the universities had their own testing mechanisms. “Then why should they follow the ETC. If the admission tests are placed under the ETC, it will affect their autonomy,” he said.

An official of the HEC, requesting anonymity, said that instead directing the varsities for ETC, the commission should provide extra funds to the universities to enable them to provide admission forms to candidates free of cost.

“Moreover, conducting admission tests in universities is not the mandate of the HEC. The commission does not have the capacity to deal with such a huge task,” he said.

Earlier, most of the major universities in the Punjab had also declined to adopt the ETC for admissions to undergraduate programmes.

Interestingly, the HEC also indirectly admitted these facts. “HEC has sent a request to adopt the ETC Entry Test and around 50 universities across the country adopted the ETC test. However, some universities, who have already made preparations for conducting their own entry tests, have requested that they be allowed to have their own tests this year. From next academic year, they will also adopt the ETC test,” the commission responded to Daily Times through email.

When asked what kind of action the commission would take against universities that did not comply, the HEC said: “This year, it is optional for universities to adopt [the test]. However, from next year, it will be mandatory. The purpose of the council is to facilitate students.”

The HEC did not respond when asked whether or not the commission would devise any kind of strategy to bound universities to adopt the ETC.

Published in Daily Times, July 7^th , 2017.