Author Topic: King Edward Medical University (KEMU) fails to make policy on degree issuance  (Read 1846 times)

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King Edward Medical University (KEMU) fails to make policy on degree issuance

Lahore: The King Edward Medical University (KEMU), Lahore, has failed to lay down any policy to issue urgent degrees to its graduates against fees within "reasonable limits" as per order of the Provincial Ombudsman, since its inception three years ago.

It became imperative for the newly-upgraded university to devise a policy to award degrees to the candidates, requiring them urgently, especially when convocation had not been held for its graduates for the last 10 to 12 years before or after the upgrade of the former King Edward Medical College.

It has been learnt that the KEMU's examination branch had demanded Rs 5,000 each as urgent fee for awarding degrees to those candidates who had applied for degrees on urgent basis, while claiming that the University of Health Sciences (UHS) was charging this much amount to issue a degree on urgent basis.

However, it is worth mentioning that Provincial Ombudsman, in its judgment of 02.07.2007, observed, "The fee of Rs 5,000 for issuance of a degree, charged by the UHS before or after the convocation, is unreasonable and unfair. Therefore, the fee to be charged for issuance of a degree should be commensurate with the expenditure incurred on getting the degree prepared and it should not be made a source of earning. If convocation is not held up to one year of the declaration of the result, no fee may be charged from the candidates applying for issuance of degrees after the passage of this period. In other cases, fee for issuance of degrees from those who apply before the holding of the convocation should be brought within reasonable limits."

The KEMU graduates of session 2007-08, who had applied for urgent degrees from the examination branch to apply for Step-I of USMLE, said that the officials demanded Rs 5,000 each for issuance of urgent degrees, whereas the UHS had also been directed to charge only nominal fees for issuances of degrees before the holding of convocation or passage of one year of the declaration of the results. Similarly, they said the Punjab University charged minimal fee for issuance of degrees on urgent basis, whereas it issued degrees free of cost after the passage of one year of the declaration of the results.They said the UHS-affiliated Rawalpindi Medical College and some other institutions regularly held their annual convocation to award degrees to the students. They said that authorities of the KEMU (former KEMC) had been depriving its graduates of the honour of receiving degrees being during the annual convocations.

The students also complained about officials' rude behaviour towards them. When contacted, Controller of Examinations, King Edward Medical University, Prof Dr Shabbir Bhatti said that rules and regulations of this newly-upgraded university were not clear vis-‡-vis issuance of urgent degrees. However, as the situation arose with some applications for urgent degrees, he said, the university authorities decided to charge Rs 3,000 as double fee (the normal fee for issuance of degree is Rs 1,500) for issuance of degrees on urgent basis instead of earlier Rs 5,000 for the same.

When asked for the concept of urgent fee for issuance of a degree in the light of Provincial Ombudsman's judgment in this regard, he said that if the university didn't charge extra fee for issuance of urgent degrees, then it would have to cope with a situation where every student would be applying for the issuance of degrees on urgent basis. "It involves a lot of hassle before issuance of degrees such as printing of degrees, verifications of documents by the Registrar, Controller of Examinations and Vice Chancellor and then sending it to the Governor's House for signatures by the Chancellor," he explained. However, he believed that the degrees should be awarded to the graduates free of cost during the convocation or after the passage of one year period of declaration of the results as was done by the Punjab University. He said the KEMU authorities were also planning to organise its convocation by the end of this year for the first time in the last 10 to 12 years. The News
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