The University of Peshawar is going to start MS program in different departments and centers and admit another 1500 full-time students to the university. While the news sounds like another step in the institution’s progress, there has been some critical commentary on the announcement and people are bothered with the question of how the university is going to manage the new students – their studies and boarding – as the existing students are suffering from understaffed departments and lack of hostel facilities, just to name a few difficulties among a myriad of problems on campus.

As indicated in a news post in the esteemed daily The News, the University of Peshawar’s decision to start an MS degree program seems like a frantic measure to emulate Islamia College University and a few private universities, which have recently announced MS degree programs. However, there is still a lack of qualified staff at different departments and centers of the University of Peshawar and many of the postgraduate students enrolled in MPhil and PhD are suffering from the lack of proper guidance and mismanagement; resulting in pending MPhil/PhD studies. Some students are reportedly grappling with MPhil programs for as long as 7 to 10 years and they have still not obtained their degrees – though MPhil is normally a two-year program. The quality of research at some departments has also been subject to question. It does seem naïve of the university’s administration to rush to MS programs while the postgraduate study/research is already on the verge of collapse.

Another big problem for students has been that of hostel availability. Students in the evening shift have been denied hostel accommodation, something which led to more than one protest by the affected students. No new hostels have been built so far for the new students and the admissions have been announced. Despite this, students are expected to come and enroll at the university because of unavailability of jobs and the relatively stress-free life on campus.