Palestinian students and staff sue Columbia University alleging discrimination

PESHAWAR: On Tuesday, the University of Peshawar (UoP) syndicate approved the merging of 20 departments due to a shortage of students in their academic programs. The syndicate meeting was chaired by Vice-Chancellor Prof Johar Ali. A teacher from the university told Dawn that the formal department merger approval would be given by the UoP senate.

The teacher explained that low student interest in public sector universities is due to their lack of relevance to local and global markets. In the previous admission session, many Khyber Pakhtunkhwa universities repeatedly asked students to enroll through local media, as few students responded to the calls. Consequently, universities had to publish multiple advertisements in search of applicants.

The UoP syndicate decided on the following department mergers: plant biodiversity and botany, urban and regional planning and geography/geomatics, Persian and Urdu, sociology, gender studies, and social anthropology, Pashto Academy and Pashto department, regional studies, international relations, history, and philosophy, and Seerat and Islamiat.

The merged entities will be called the Institute of Botany and Plant Biodiversity, the Department of Geography, Geomatics, and Urban Planning, the Department of Urdu and Persian, the Department of Social and Cultural Studies (or Sociology, Social Anthropology, and Gender Studies), the Pashto Department and Academy for Research and Literature, the Department of International Relations, History, and Philosophy, and the Department of Islamic and Seerat Studies.

Additionally, the College of Home Economics' BS human nutrition and dietetics and BS public health programs will be transferred to the Institute of Health Sciences, and BS fashion design, interior design, and arts and design programs will be consolidated under a single department. The UoP spokesperson, Numan Jan, confirmed that the department merger proposal came from the academic council and was endorsed by the syndicate.

He stated that the merged departments were from the same faculties and that UoP would continue more than 70 BS programs. The teaching faculty of merged departments would be transferred or adjusted after considering their workload and the consolidation of departments and programs.