KOHAT, June 20: The administration of Kohat University of Science and Technology (KUST) has announced that it will hold the rescheduled papers of all the faculties from June 24 amid protests by students for their postponement.
KUST vice-chancellor Dr Nasir Jamal Khattak has given final chance to the protesting students and asked them to end boycott of papers and appear in exams on June 24 to save their one year.
Talking to Dawn, the VC said that earlier it was the prerogative of the administration to conduct extra semester or supplementary exams, but now the Higher Education Commission had enforced 2012 Act for executing examinations and admissions across the board throughout the country.
The decisions were now made by the academic council and not by the VCs. He said that if anybody had doubt they could visit the HEC website for their information.
Mr Khattak advised the students to refrain from delaying exams because even if he accepted their demand for extra semester or supplementary exams the HEC would not accept their degree in that case. He said that in case of further delay the students would have to submit fee for the skipped semester because teachers had to consume time again for teaching the old course.
He said that in any case they had to conduct examinations and announce results before the start of Ramazan because the students were also not prepared for exams during Ramazan.
The VC said that a disciplinary committee would be formed to identify those students who were misguiding others and delaying papers and take action.
Answering a question, he said that earlier the protesting students had been forcing others to boycott exams and in some cases snatched answer sheets from other students. He added that majority of the students were ready for exams and could prevail upon only 10 ‘miscreants’ and save their future.
The students, meanwhile, told Dawn that they would not appear in the examinations as announced by the VC unless their demand for supplementary exams or extra semester was accepted. They said that they would approach the HEC and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor to force the administration to consider their demand and end the existing stalemate.