KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) says the activities of seven private universities have been suspended for one year, while the licences of two others have been revoked following inspections that uncovered “ghost students”, administrative and teaching problems and other violations.
In a statement, the ministry said it had monitored and evaluated all public and private universities across the country during the spring semester of the 1405 solar year, identifying “very serious” problems at nine private universities.
It said the universities had been given recommendations and warnings several times, but, according to the ministry, had failed to make the necessary improvements.
The ministry said a delegation was later appointed to re-examine the problems at the universities. After the delegation’s report was presented to and approved by the ministry’s leadership council, a decision was made to suspend seven universities and revoke the licences of two others.
The statement said the following universities had been suspended for one year: Barlas in Jawzjan, Rah-i-Saadat and Turkistan in Balkh, Azhar and Barna in Badakhshan, Rashad in Faryab, and Payam University in Kabul.
The operating licences of Kahandazh University in Kunduz and Khana-i-Danesh University in Takhar were also revoked.
MoHE identified the major problems at the universities as the absence of leadership and administrative staff, the presence of “ghost students”, failure to record class attendance, allowing students who had been barred from taking final examinations to sit for them, and promoting such students to higher semesters.
The ministry noted that some universities lacked the necessary laboratories, equipment, facilities and materials for students’ practical training and were not teaching the curriculum approved by the ministry.
According to the ministry, although much of the training in some medical faculties should be conducted practically in hospitals, no students were present in the hospitals during inspections.
It added that the two universities whose licences were revoked had also been found to have forged class attendance records.
According to the ministry, some students who had not attended classes during the semester and had been barred from continuing their studies were nevertheless marked as present in altered attendance records.
kk/sa
