The syndicate of the University of Peshawar (UoP) has approved the merger of 20 academic departments, citing declining student enrolment across several programmes. The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by Vice-chancellor Prof Johar Ali on Tuesday. Final approval of the merger will be granted by the UoP senate.
According to official documents, the department of plant biodiversity will merge with the department of botany to form the institute of botany and plant biodiversity. The department of urban and regional planning will combine with the department of geography and geomatics, creating the department of geography, geomatics and urban planning. The department of Persian will merge with the department of Urdu to form the department of Urdu and Persian.
The syndicate also approved merging the department of sociology, the department of gender studies and the department of social anthropology into a single unit, to be named either the department of social and cultural studies or the department of sociology, social anthropology and gender studies. Pashto Academy will merge with the department of Pashto to form the Pashto department and academy for research and literature.
Four departments, namely regional studies, international relations, history and philosophy, will be consolidated into the department of international relations, history and philosophy. The department of Seerat will merge with the department of Islamiat to form the department of Islamic and Seerat Studies.
The BS human nutrition and dietetics and BS public health programmes, currently under the College of Home Economics, will be shifted to the Institute of Health Sciences due to their closer alignment with allied health sciences. Meanwhile, BS fashion design, BS interior design and BS arts and design programmes will be consolidated under a single academic unit to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and optimise institutional resources.
A university teacher told media that public sector universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had repeatedly advertised for admissions last year due to poor student response, largely because of the mismatch between academic offerings and market demand.
Sources said the minister for higher education, Meena Khan Afridi, had earlier directed university officials to merge under-enrolled departments to ease financial pressure on the institution. A committee was subsequently formed to assess enrolment figures, faculty-to-student ratios and departmental salary expenditure before recommending consolidation.
UoP spokesperson Numan Jan confirmed that the merger proposal originated from the academic council and was endorsed by the syndicate. He said the merged departments belonged to the same faculties, and that the university would continue to offer more than 70 BS programmes. Teaching staff from merged departments will be transferred or adjusted based on workload requirements, he added.
