PESHAWAR, July 5: Private colleges affiliated with the University of Peshawar are not following the set criteria and that too with the connivance of officials in the university administration, sources say.

“Violation of rules has been observed in students` admission in bachelor of education (BEd) and bachelor of law (LLB) disciplines in most of the private colleges,” an official told Dawn .

According to the UoP criteria, only those candidates can apply for admission in LLB in private college who have qualified bachelors examination with law as priority subject with 45 per cent marks. Even those candidates can apply for admission in LLB who have passed bachelor examinations without law as subject.

Similarly, for taking admission in BEd, the university`s set criterion is BA/BSc or MA/MSc with 45 per cent marks.

Of the 150 colleges and institutions affiliated with UoP, 32 were conducting BEd courses and 17 LLB, they said, adding that many of these institutions had been violating the university criteria.

Sources said that the administration of many private colleges was even giving admission to the students in LLB who had done BSc agriculture, BBA, BSc pharmacy, BCom and the students of other irrelevant disciplines. These colleges and institutions are located in different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Peshawar, Nowshera, Swabi, Abbottabad and Mansehra.

When asked, the sources said that the private colleges wanted to make more money by giving admission to irrelevant students. Some of the institutes even go beyond their mandatory number of seats and award admission to extra students.

The university administration has been silent over this serious issue since long because most of the private affiliated colleges belong to high-ups in the university administration, sources further said.

When asked how can the university officials establish private colleges, the sources said that they had done so in the name of their children.

Director Admission Prof Dr Hizbullah, who deals the affairs of private college admissions, when contacted said that he had circulated a letter to all the affiliated private colleges to strictly observe the university criteria, otherwise they would face action.

“Since I assumed the responsibility as director, no admission form of student not fulfilling the criteria has been accepted,” he claimed.

UoP spokesman Akhtar Amin said that the university administration had established Academic Audit Committee three months back that would conduct surprise visits to all the private affiliated colleges to see whether the institutions were observing the university criteria or not.

“On the recommendation of the committee, the vice-chancellor can de-affiliate the private colleges,” he said.Dawn.