Peshawar - There has been a decline in enrolment in MS, MPhil, and PhD programmes in the universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while the authorities are paying little attention to improve the state of affairs.
Almost all universities of the province are also faced with shortage of staff as well. It merits a mention here that the KP universities’ chancellor, who is the KP Governor too, is often busy in meeting delegations from far and wide in the province to give an impression to people that he is “Awami Governor” but on the other hand, he has almost totally neglected his job of monitoring varsities and solving their problems.
During the past two years, no student has been admitted to the MS programme in the province. In 2021, Women’s University Swabi admitted 165 students in various disciplines of the MS programme.
Documents indicate that at Khushal Khan Khattak University Karak, enrolment in the MS programme has dropped from 98 to 79. Moreover, at Women’s University Mardan, admission to the MS programme has been closed for male students for the past three years.
According to the documents, universities such as Swabi University, Islamia College University, Abbottabad University of Science and Technology have also witnessed a decrease in admissions to MS and MPhil programmes. There is also a shortage of enrolments in MS and MS programmes at the University of Science and Technology, Abbottabad.
Furthermore, it was revealed that in the past three years, not a single candidate has been enrolled in a PhD program in any of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s 11 universities.
The Higher Education Department stated that the primary reason for this decline in enrolments is the shortage of permanent staff in universities. Most universities are hiring teachers on a visiting or contract basis. This situation has led to a reduction in research activities in higher education institutions.
Most of the academic community is concerned about the lack of funds and shortage of staff at universities, leading to declining quality of education.
