GCU announces new admission policy

LAHORE:GOVERNMENT College University (GCU) Lahore will not conduct on-campus tests for admissions to various degree programmes, including BSc (Hons) Computer Science and BA (Hons) English Literature and Political Science this year due to the risk of COVID-19 spread.

GCU's Academic Council in its 24th meeting Friday approved the university’s new policy for admissions to the undergraduate programmes.

According the new policy, the chairperson concerned would overview the admission process and take the full responsibility of upholding the merit. Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi chaired the Academic Council’s meeting which was also attended by Professor Emeritus Dr Khalid Hamid Sheikh, Distinguished Professor Dr Zaheer-ud-Din Khan, Professor Dr Rafi M Chaudhry, Chair in CASP, Dr Muhammad Zakaullah, faculty deans and other members of the council.

Briefing the media about the council’s decisions, the vice-chancellor said that considering the nature of disciplines, Fine Arts and Physical Education departments were permitted to conduct on-campus entrance tests/trials while strictly observing SOPs. However, the departments of Computer Science and English will follow the open merit policy.

Prof Zaidi also said History, Political Science and Psychology were permitted to conduct candidates’ online interviews and the interviews would have a weightage of 30 percent. “However, it would be necessary for candidates to qualify the interviews for admissions,” he added. Prof Zaidi said that all universities had increased 15 to 40 percent fee this year but GCU didn’t want to burden its students to this extent. “So, we have revived the seats for admission on the basis of self-finance in each class,” he said. The fund generated will be used to initiate scholarships for MPhil and PhD students. Moving forward to greater access to higher education in the first phase, the VC said, Biotechnology, Botany, Chemistry, Commerce and Finance (BAF), English, Environmental Science (SDSC), Geography, History, Mathematics, Physical Education, Psychology and Zoology would have two sections (each comprising 55 students) this year in morning classes. However, the number of seats already approved for the evening classes would remain the same. The university also decided to devise strategy for opening admissions in Spring Semester. A new committee was formed to oversee each step to start a new undergraduate programme in Management Studies.

Previously, the VC was authorised to decide the number of seats for admissions on the co-curricular and sports basis, but this year, the Academic Council on the request of Prof Zaidi has fixed the seats in each category of sports and co-curricular activities. Extra seats for transgender communities were also announced. The VC said trials for sports and co-curricular activities would be conducted while strictly following SOPs. For each trial category (Sports, Qiraat, Naat, Debate, Drama, Music, Rovers), the candidates shall be divided in multiple batches. Separate time slot shall be allocated for each batch to avoid crowded situations. Prof Zaidi said candidates would not be allowed to be accompanied by anyone on the trial day. The Academic Council approved policy for granting admissions to the international students. Prof Zaidi revealed that the admission to the undergraduate programmes would start after the final approval of policy by the Syndicate next week.