KU's defaulter students owe over Rs2.1bn in tuition fees

As many as 16,506 students from the University of Karachi’s morning, evening, and executive masters of business administration programmes have not paid their long outstanding dues of more than Rs2,101.5 million from 2020 to 2024.

The figure, the varsity said in a statement released Wednesday, for defaulter students does not include the research scholars enrolled in MPhil/PhD and other postgraduate programmes.

This data was shared during a meeting which was chaired by the KU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi.

The meeting's members were concerned that a huge amount of Rs2,101,486,351 was still payable by the 16,506 defaulter students.

They recommended that debtors should not be allowed to appear in the exams and that their admit cards must not be issued in any condition. The proposal to cancel the enrollment/degrees of defaulter graduate students was also discussed during the meeting.

The participants were informed that 22,575 fee vouchers were issued to morning students of which 13,205 students paid their fees and the rest of 9,370 students are still defaulters.

The fees of more than Rs1,558.87 million were supposed to be collected as fees, but over Rs567.32 million fees were paid by the students and the amount of more than Rs991.54 million is yet to be deposited by the students as tuition fees.

They were told that only 36.39% of the total tuition fee amount was received from the students.

The members were briefed that 13,425 fee vouchers were generated for the evening programme students and 6,543 students cleared their dues while 6,882 students have not paid their fees to date.

The amount of over Rs1,435.04 million was charged by the campus as fees and the collection was more than Rs385.19 million. However, over Rs1,049.84 million are still pending and just 26.84% of total fees were deposited by the students.

It was also shared that 767 fee vouchers were issued to the students enrolled in the EMBA (weekend) programme and 513 students have paid their fees whereas 254 students are still defaulters.

The KU charged an amount of more than Rs100.30 million as a fee and received payment of over Rs40.20 million in return, and the amount of more than Rs60.10 million is still payable by the defaulter students. According to statistics provided to the participants of the meeting, 40.08% amount of the total fees was collected so far.

The data reflects that overall 36,767 fee vouchers were generated and 20,261 students paid their fees but still 16,506 students have to submit their fees.

The KU had charged over Rs3,094.20 million as fees and collected more than Rs992.71 million from the students while the amount more than Rs2,101.5 million is yet to recover from the defaulter students.

According to the statistics of fee collection for the evening programme, in 2024, a total of 2,522 fee vouchers were generated, and 1,541 students paid their fees, while 981 students are still defaulters, which means 60.10% of active students have cleared their dues.

Meanwhile, in 2023, around 3,912 fee vouchers were issued, 2,071 students paid their fees, 1,840 students were defaulters, meaning that 52.95% of students paid their fees.

In 2022, around 3,272 fee vouchers were issued, and 1,359 students cleared their payments, showing that 41.53% of students paid their tuition fees.

The meeting was told that in 2021, about 3,231 fee vouchers were issued, 1,260 students paid the fees, but 1,971 students were defaulters, which means only 39% of students paid their fees.

In 2020, KU issued 338 fee vouchers and 242 students paid their fees, still, 96 students are defaulters, reflecting that 71.60% of students have cleared their dues.

The members were also informed that 151 pass-out students get fee vouchers of which 70 students paid their dues and 81 former students are still defaulters, showing that 46.36% of ex-students have paid the fees.

"The defaulter students overlooked all the opportunities given by the KU administration to clear the pending dues and now it is decided that students of the evening programme who have cleared their all dues would get the admit cards and will be allowed to appear in the exams," the statement added.

The meeting was attended by the Director Evening Professor Dr Imran Ahmad Siddiqui, Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Science Professor Dr Shaista Tabassum, Dean of Faculty of Science Professor Dr Musarrat Jahan Yousuf, Dean of Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Professor Dr Muhammad Haris Shoib, Dean of Faculty of Islamic Studies Professor Dr Zahid Ali Zahidi, Students’ Advisor Dr Nosheen Raza, and Director Finance Syed Jehanzeb. The meeting was held at the KU VC Secretariat on Wednesday.