Karachi University’s academic council has taken another U-turn by discontinued its two-year BA, B.Sc., and B.Com programs for its affiliated public and private colleges.
The move came as a surprise to many stakeholders as they had not been consulted or informed beforehand. They believe that the decision was made in haste as the university has also announced admissions to its two-year associate degree programs from 6 September.
The council met in July and decided to continue its conventional graduate degree programs (BA, B.Sc., and B.Com), and to defer the two-year associate degree program until June 2022.
However, Karachi’s largest public university has backtracked on its decision and issued a statement on 3 September that read:
The academic council after approving the policy has changed the nomenclature of the two-year BA, BSc and BCom degree programs to Associate Degree in Arts, Associate Degree in Science, and Associate Degree in Commerce, respectively, for regular and private students.
A resolution adopted in the same meeting stated that no changes will be made in the course outline, rules, and regulations for now.
It detailed that “the course outlines/syllabi which have already been offered in BA, BSc, and BCom will be offered in the Associate Degree Program and the system of the examination for the Associate Degree Program will be the same as the previous one”.
The academic council has set up a committee to ‘discuss and deliberate’ the changes in the curricula, including the examination system for the Associate Degree in light of the guidelines given by the Higher Education Commission, after the approval of the council.
