Undergraduate admissions: Major universities in Punjab refuse to adopt HEC test

Lahore: The major universities in Punjab have denied to adopt the ‘Education Testing Council’ (ETC) Aptitude Test by Higher Education Commission for admission to undergraduate programmes from fall 2017.

The major educational institutes including University of the Punjab (PU), University of Engineering and Technology (UET), the University of Health Sciences (UHS) as well as Government College University (GCU) have showed their inability to adopt the ETC Aptitude Test after mentioning different reasons.

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Likewise, most of the private sector universities are also not interested in the admission test sponsored by HEC.

While talking to the media sources, the officials of various private and government sector universities said: the universities cannot adopt the higher education commission entrance test because it may not just ‘hurt’ their sovereignty however also deprive them of revenue.

The UHS representative while talking to media said:

“The medical college admission test is not a test of any university instead it falls in the domain of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and the government of the Punjab. This test is conducted by the University Of Health Sciences (UHS) on behalf of the government of the Punjab according to the rules and regulations of the PMDC.

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This test is arranged at multiple examination centres across the province and is one of the biggest high-stake tests and is a little bit different from the other admission tests conducted for entry into university programmes in terms of worth, weightage as well as stakes involved.

Too much hard work as well as effort is involved in making this a standardized test over the years. Now this entry test is a symbol of quality, merit and fairness that cannot be compromised at any cost.”

A dean of faculty of Government College University said that the management of university had talked to the HEC its inability to change its admission criteria as well as strategies at such a short notice.

“The admission criteria and the rules of the university are approved by the statutory bodies of the university, academic council and syndicate, plus any decision in this respect can be taken just after their approval.”

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The officials of Punjab University and University of engineering and technology said they cannot adopt the ETC Aptitude Test of Higher Education Commission at this stage because they had advertised their undergraduate admissions for fall 2017.

They further added that both universities might consider adopting the test of HEC after sometime.