Unfair Imposing of Cap on Majors

We are students of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore, Pakistan, the Batch of 2009, and its our first year here. The finals of the last semester are about to finish and were all set to become sophomores.



Recently "to keep focus on the quality while managing the resource constraints, the Steering Committee (OF LUMS) has decided that there will be an upper limit to the number of students inducted in a Major."



This statement has resulted in a cap being put on the course offerings at LUMS. With no prior warning of such a move, Freshman as yet havent even become serious about the matter of studying to get good grades. The LUMS Student Handbook States "The specialisation area(s) indicated by a student in the admission application form is/are taken as the default major(s) throughout the BSc (Honours) Programme, unless the student notifies a change." We havent notified a change as yet, but the change has been imposed on us.



LUMS Student Handbook States:

For ACF Majors:

this (ACF) major will be offered to limited number of students only. This policy is needed keeping in mind the constraints (availability of faculty, programme design features such as required internships, market acceptance etc.). It is envisaged that the intake to the programme will be limited to a maximum of 50-60 students.



In the handbook no such capping limit has been placed on any other major, and a misguiding the University reserves the right to change its program policy is a great ambiguity.



And also :

Students will declare the major by the End of 2nd Quarter of Second Year.



In blatant violation of these policies, with no previous warning to students, no hint that such a move is evident, the LUMS Steering committee has gone ahead with this capping policy in the middle of the finals.



The capping limits for the majors are:

Accounting and Finance: 60

Computer Science and Computer Engineering: 100

LAW : 50

MATH: 100

Social Sciences: 100

ECON : 130



The hardest hit people are the ones who are doing the Economics(ECON) major, as they comprise the majority of the 2009 Batch. Some have considered leaving LUMS, wasting at least a year of their studies. Others have decided for transfers to more accommodating departments at the cost of their interests and desired higher education goals, being forced to sacrifice their careers to stay in LUMS.



Approximate ECON Major enrollment for other batches / total no of students.

2008 Batch 210/480

2007 Batch 204/440

Following the cap on ECON:

2009 Batch 130/490



Its obvious that this cap will have drastic effects on the students. The management, by principle should have informed the Students of this policy at the beginning of the year, or before they had been admitted to LUMS. The careers of many of us are now at stake. However, at this moment we need to deal with the situation at hand.



We, being the class representatives, advise the Students of 2009 to keep emotions under control and remain calm. Surely this policy is unjust for us and we have to deal with the situation with wisdom. Nothing should be said or written which offends the management, and God Willing, some accommodation will be made with the management.



Possible Solutions to this issue:

-Removing the cap in its entirety.

-Increasing the cap to a reasonable number which reflects the previous batches cap.

-Increase the cap on ACF Majors (to 130) as department sizes of ECON and ACF are approximately equal.

-Delay the declaration majors at least till the end of autumn quarter 2006-07.



We hope, Inshallah that we succeed in this endeavor, and we need all the support we can get.



This Online Petition, along with one being circulated within LUMS, is to be presented to the administration on Monday 29th May, 2006.



If you have any suggestions then please feel free to contact anyone of us.



Sharjeel Sohail 0345-4010176

Mohammad Bilal Ahmed. 0300-2204868

Shaan Lashari 0321-4697500