UoP committee finalises report on Edwardes College

PESHAWAR: Exceeding its terms of reference, a University of Peshawar Committee has seemingly targeted some faculty members and students of the historic Edwardes College instead of focusing its attention on its mandate that was to check the number of classrooms and teaching staff facility for BS English students.

Some students of the college had moved the court pleading that the classrooms and teachers for them were not enough and the college was collecting a heavy fee from them.

The court directed the University of Peshawar with which the BS programme of the college is affiliated to check whether the classrooms and teaching staff were enough for the BS programme.

The university gave the task to its standing committee for affiliation headed by a dean and comprising four other officials of the university. It visited the college on September 16 and furnished its report. The News got a copy of the report.

The committee in its seven-page report has gone way beyond its terms of reference and made the recommendations, which are irrelevant to its mandate.

The committee head was stated to be rude with some teachers, particularly with the petitioner students, during a personal hearing.

Also, he is reported to have twisted the statements given by some faculty members and students to the committee.

Contrary to its ToRs, the committee recommended reunification of English (intermediate) and BS English departments in the college.

The committee gave 18 findings and eight recommendations.

The first recommendation asked the college to strictly adhere to the number of students of 24 in the morning and 40 in the evening shift.

The committee recommended that the morning shifts should be kept separate. It recommended that there should be only one head of department for Intermediate and BS.

The college shall not assign teaching of a subject to a teacher for which he/she was not appointed originally, it recommended. It said the board of governors should be approached to reconsider its decision of splitting the English Department. It noted that the BoG may want to ensure that it initiates disciplinary action against anyone who refuses to follow the directives of the college or any of its official representative.

The college may want to have a clear policy for fee structure, it added.

The college may want to refund the difference in fee between what was charged at the start of the programme and given in the prospectus, it recommended.

None of the recommendations has any similarity with the mandate of the committee, which clearly shows its biased approach.

Those in the know of things felt the University of Peshawar needs to look into the matter and reconsider the committee’s reportedly misleading report before submitting it to the honourable court.