Plight of KU Chemical Engineering students
Karachi: Syed Hussain Ahmed (not his real name) was very happy when he was admitted to the First year of Bachelor of Engineering (BE) classes in the Department of Chemical Technology/Engineering (BCT), University of Karachi (KU) in January 2007. However, he was unaware of the travails he would be exposed to after some time.
Ahmed and his class fellows are suffering because of the non-accreditation of the KU BE degree by Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) which has refused to accredit the degrees unless its guidelines are accepted and practiced by the BCT.
Ahmed says that according to the PEC rules, any institution before launching any programme should have well-equipped laboratories, permanent faculty, lecture halls and a building in sound condition. The university, till date, has failed to provide all these facilities to the students.
The most essential requirement of a well-equipped laboratory (Heat Transfer, Mass Transfer, Fluid Mechanics, Particulate Technology, Workshop, Engineering Drawing and Unit Operations) is yet to become a reality and so is the case with the Lecture Halls and Permanent Faculty. The department building, an old and dilapidated structure, has two small chemistry labs, a small seminar library, a computer lab with only 10 computers, a chairman's office and a staff room. All these facilities are below par and can hardly be considers as standard facilities.
Prof. Pirzada Qasim, Vice Chancellor, KU, pointed out that the department had problems from the beginning when a programme of Bachelor in Chemical Technology (BCT), a four year degree course, was launched in 1985 but discontinued due to financial restraints. It was again revived as an evening programme in 1995 but could not continue due to non-accreditation from the PEC. The university again established the present department in 2007 and the first batch of the BE in Chemical Engineering will pass out in December 2010. "We are optimistic that by that time we will be able to conform to the PEC guidelines and get the BE degrees accredited by them (PEC)," Prof. Qasim explained.
The Vice Chancellor disclosed that BCT, Department of Petroleum Technology and Department of Agriculture will be given one building each from the three that are currently used by the Department of Food Science & Technology (FST). "The new building of FST is completed and they are waiting for the electricity. We are in the process of providing them that (electricity) and the process (of transfer) will become easy for all the concerned departments," he elaborated.
Prof. Qasim said that, "We were to receive Rs237 million from the HEC but received only Rs75 million. It has given us jitters. How will we pay the salaries? How will we complete the ongoing projects? We are in a financial quagmire. But we are trying to get out by involving industries to help us out," he said optimistically.
Dr Fasiullah Khan, Chairman, BCT, said that they had fulfilled most of the PEC guidelines. "University of Karachi has established a Faculty of Engineering on October 19, 2002, and the Department of Chemical Technology/Engineering came into being in March 2004. The prescribed syllabus was in line with the revised curriculum of Chemical Engineering of Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2003. It is approved by the Board of Faculty and Academic Council (of KU). Prof Rais Alvi, the Registrar of the university has written a letter to PEC to get the accreditation. No reply has been received from the PEC to date", he added.
Dr Khan said that he had called the concerned authorities (in PEC) to know about their response to the Registrar's letter. "They (PEC) informed me (on telephone) that the PEC Evaluation team will visit the department when the first batch is in the third year (currently it is in the second year)".
Dr Khan is confident that the accreditation from PEC will not be difficult anymore as according to him all the basic requirements have been fulfilled. "They wanted us to have at least 75 per cent engineers as the members of the faculty. We have seven out of nine. That is more than 75 per cent," he says proudly. The News
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