KARACHI: One of the top engineering institutes of Sindh, the NED University of Engineering and Technology has announced that it was making some major changes in its admissions criteria as the education scenario witnessed adjustments due to the coronavirus outbreak.

According to the new policy, those who are seeking admission in university’s bachelor’s program would be selected based on their  first-year intermediate results. In past, the university was accepting the students after their combined first and second year percentage.

Moreover, the policy for admissions on merit has also been amended. Marks of entrance test and the marks obtained in intermediate exams will be shared. It means that the entrance test marks should be 50 per cent whereas the other 50 per cent would be considered from intermediate results.

Earlier, the university gave preference to intermediate marks as they have 91.66 per cent weightage. Once the policy is implemented, candidates would have to work very hard to clear the admission test in order to get admission in the varsity.

New admissions policy was approved by the varsity’s Academic Council during an online meeting chaired by vice-chancellor, Professor Sarosh Lodhi.

NED will start accepting the admissions in July whereas admission tests will be held in the second week of August. The new academic year of the varsity will begin on in October.

It should be noted that in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Government had announced the closure of all academic institution (schools, colleges, universities, and madaris) in the country until May 31, 2020. The period of break will be treated as summer vacations.

The federal and provincial governments had also directed all the educational institutions to suspend upcoming examinations, including IX, X, intermediate and others, and re-schedule them to the new dates once the academic institutions re-open following an end to lockdown restrictions.