GUJRAT: The future of at least 200 students of the sof tware engineering programme at the University of Gujrat (UoG) is at stake as the varsity has not applied for accreditation of the programme from the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) even after four years of its launch.

Thestudentshadoftenexpressed their concern over the situation, but the varsity`s department concerned has paid no heed yet.

The UoG spokesman claimed that instead of accreditation from the PEC, they had applied with the National Computing Council of Pakistan (NCCP) that paid the zero visit (permission visit) around three weeks ago. The firstbatch of students is currently in their eighth semester.

UoG`s Faculty of Computing and Information Technology started offering a BSc Software Engineering degree four years ago, which has not been accredited by any regulatory body yet.

The PEC is a federal regulatory institution for accreditation and regularisation of engineering programmes established under an Act of parliament on Jan 10, 1976. Under the Act: `An institution within or without Pakistan, which grants degree, diploma and certificate in engineering and related educadon and is accredited as such by the Council.

However, the Faculty of Computing and IT is not making any effort to secure future of its students. Before starting an engi-neering programme, a zero visit is compulsory for intimation and prior approval from the governing body -PEC. Students alleged that the UoG had neither initiated any zero visit, nor planned to seek accreditation of the programme from the PEC.

The first batch of the bachelors programme is about to complete its degree, while the recently enrolled students were worried due to non-accreditation of the programme.

During a recent strike by students at the UoG`s Hafiz Hayat campus, one of the protesters asked about the status of the sof tware engineering programme.

Upon which dean of the faculty being a member of the university discipline committee had banned the entry of some students alleg-neering programme, a zero visit is compulsory for intimation and prior approval from the governing body -PEC. Students alleged that the UoG had neither initiated any zero visit, nor planned to seek accreditation of the programme from the PEC.

The first batch of the bachelors programme is about to complete its degree, while the recently enrolled students were worried due to non-accreditation of the programme.

During a recent strike by students at the UoG`s Hafiz Hayat campus, one of the protesters asked about the status of the sof tware engineering programme.

Upon which dean of the faculty being a member of the university discipline committee had banned the entry of some students alleg-neering programme, a zero visit is compulsory for intimation and prior approval from the governing body -PEC. Students alleged that the UoG had neither initiated any zero visit, nor planned to seek accreditation of the programme from the PEC.

The first batch of the bachelors programme is about to complete its degree, while the recently enrolled students were worried due to non-accreditation of the programme.

During a recent strike by students at the UoG`s Hafiz Hayat campus, one of the protesters asked about the status of the sof tware engineering programme.

Upon which dean of the faculty being a member of the university discipline committee had banned the entry of some students alleg-edly so that no other student could ask such questions.

Sheikh Abdul Rasheed, the UoG media and publications director, said that the department concerned had planned to get accreditation from the NCCP instead of the PEC as, according to him, the department believed that only engineering universities were bound to get accreditation of engineering programmes from PEC.

However, he also said that the varsity could choose one of the two regulatory bodies for accreditation and it had opted for NCCP that had already paid its zero visit three weeks ago. He added that the varsity would soon fulfil requirements and overcome lapses pointed out by the visiting team and he hoped accreditationwould be approved upon the next visit of the regulatory body`s team.

Some senior officials of the UoG as well as students said that if the dean and head of department`s point of view was valid that only engineering varsities were bound to get PEC accreditation then why universities such as Government College University Faisalabad, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Bahria University and many others got their software engineering programmes accredited from the PEC instead of NCCP.

They said that the vice chancellor and other authorities concerned in the higher education department should take notice of this slackness of UoG officials who were playing with the future of students.