7 universities’ activities suspended, 2 licences revoked — Pajhwok

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the activities of seven private universities have been suspended for one year, while the licences of two others have been revoked following inspections that uncovered “ghost students”, administrative and teaching problems and other violations.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…