Beaconhouse National University Students Upset About Varsity Decision

Lahore: Abrupt decisions by institutions without taking all stakeholders into confidence eventually fall apart and this has exactly happened in case of the Beaconhouse National University.


The BNU administration is facing massive protests by students against its Board of Governor's 'unilateral' decision of combining the School of Liberal Arts (SLA) and the School of Social Sciences (SSS) under one dean.

The SLA students did not accept the merger and protested on varsity campus as well as outside, saying the decision is neither wise nor feasible. The students also displayed posters and placards demanding that they wanted their SLA intact as they felt "they were in safe hands".

There are also reports that the BNU administration has removed SLA dean Naveed Shahzad -- something the varsity administration denies by saying she will continue to head the SLA under a dean looking after both SLA and SSS after their merger.

The protesters, however, suggested that if the BoG wanted to merge the two schools, it should have merged SLA with the School of Media and Communication which was offering courses more relevant to their programme.

They claim that the SSS faculty members are not competent enough to teach the SLA syllabi. The protesters also said the varsity administration should not have taken such a hasty decision affecting three batches currently enrolled.

Respecting the contract between the students and the university, they said, the BNU administration should have taken the decision and advertised it in its prospectus for the new students.

Some varsity teachers have also endorsed the stance of the students. A delegation of students has also submitted a charter of demands to the administration and announced their commitment to oppose the merger.

Now, the students say, they are awaiting the administration's response to their demands.

BNU Vice-Chancellor Sartaj Aziz said he had held a meeting with the faculty of SLA and informed them that the merger proposal was still under consideration and a final decision would be taken in the next few days after a meeting of the BoG.