Punjab University students block CM Secretariat
Lahore: Dozens of students from the Punjab University's Institute of Mycology and Plant Pathology (IMPP) staging a strong demonstration on Monday blocked road near 90-Shrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam to protest over what they termed "PU administration's indifferent attitude over degree equivalence issue."
Carrying banners and placards, the protesting students chanted slogans against PU administration and IMPP management for not paying attention to their problems. They said despite details mentioned in the institute's prospectus, their degree was not being considered equivalent to that of plant pathology agriculture owing to which students were facing immense problems in getting jobs.
The protestors also alleged that instead of listening to problems of the students, the PU administration and the institute's management was threatening the protesting students. After recording their protest, the students dispersed peacefully while a traffic mess was witnessed on The Mall for quite some time.
Meanwhile, a PU press release said that PU Acting Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Jamil Anwar Ch while addressing a joint meeting of faculty and students of the Institute of Mycology and Plant Pathology (IMPP) at New Campus here on Monday said the Board of Studies in Mycology and Plant Pathology and the Board of Faculty of Life Sciences had already given their approval for changing nomenclature of Institute of Mycology and Plant Pathology to Institute of Plant Pathology in addition to changing nomenclature of degrees from BSc (Hons) and MSc (Hons) Mycology and Plant Pathology to BSc (Hons) and MSc (Hons) Agriculture (Plant Pathology) by adopting curricula of HEC in Plant Pathology for the said degrees.
He said was done to remove genuine grievances of students over equivalence of the institute's degree to safeguard their future and brighten up their prospects for job opportunities.Similarly, both the bodies had also approved arranging deficiency courses in special semesters for existing students as well as those who have already qualified to bring them at par for the proposed degrees BSc Agriculture (Plant Pathology) or MSc Agriculture (Plant Pathology), he added.
Dr Jamil Anwar further said the students who had already passed out would surrender their old degrees for acquiring new ones after completion of one-year deficiency course. He further said the adoption of HEC curricula from the academic Session 2010 had also been approved. The news
