The University of Peshawar has decided to close nine Bachelor of Studies (BS) departments from the fall semester of 2025 due to extremely low admissions.
According to official documents, the BS programmes being discontinued include:
The university has a regulation that cancels admissions if fewer than 15 students enroll in any programme. This year, the admissions were alarmingly low. Only one student applied for BS Human Development and Family Studies. Two students each applied for BS Development Studies, Logistics and Supply Chain Analytics, and Home Economics. Meanwhile, three students each sought admission in BS Geography and BS History, five in BS Social Anthropology, seven in BS Statistics, and 14 in BS Geology.
In light of these figures, the university issued a notification to discontinue the programmes. It asked departments to refer affected students to the Director of Admissions to help them choose alternative programmes.
Academicians say the administration failed to modernise and market BS courses. They note that major departments — including mathematics, chemistry, social work, Urdu, Pashto, journalism, disaster management, and urban planning — also recorded lower-than-expected admissions this year.
On the other hand, programmes such as pharmacy, English, psychology, computer science, law, environmental sciences, physics, international relations, criminology, and management sciences continue to enroll sufficient numbers of students.
A UoP spokesperson said students are shifting toward fields with better career scope, such as allied health sciences and IT. Traditional humanities subjects remain less attractive.
An academic expert, Yousaf Ali, linked the declining trend to structural issues. He said universities and colleges offer the same BS programmes without planning, but the fee gap is massive. For example, the University of Peshawar charges around Rs150,000 per year for a BS degree, while the same degree costs around Rs14,000 per year in public colleges.
Ali added that UoP’s financial crisis pushes it to increase fees regularly, driving away students. He also cited the expansion of higher education institutions — with 44 universities and nearly 1,000 public and private colleges now operating in the province — as a factor fragmenting admissions.
He warned that several programmes have lost market relevance and employability, while departments failed to redesign curricula for modern needs. He urged the government to review the BS system, which is now facing serious challenges at both universities and colleges.
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