PESHAWAR, The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday introduced a uniform policy for admission to government and private professional colleges.

Under the new policy, qualifying the Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (ETEA) test has been made mandatory for candidates intending to take admission to public and private medical and engineering colleges, said a notification issued here on Wednesday.

Before announcement of this policy, qualifying the ETEA test was obligatory only for candidates taking admission to government-run medical and engineering colleges. Private medical and engineering colleges were exempted from the ETEA test. The new policy is aimed at bringing the bright minds to the private professional colleges.

The policy was approved at a meeting of the ETEA board of governors held under its head, Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti. The ETEA was established in 1998 to undertake administration of tests for admission to engineering and medical institutions of the province in place of external testing agencies.

“All candidates seeking admission to medical/dental colleges within the geographical territory of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will have to qualify the centralised entry test under the umbrella of Khyber Medical University and conducted by the ETEA,” said the notification issued by the provincial government.

It further said: “All candidates seeking admission to engineering colleges within the geographical territory of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will have to qualify the centralised entry test conducted by ETEA.”

Candidates hailing from other provinces will be considered for admission to professional colleges of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa if they qualify the centralised entry test of their province concerned.

Earlier, private professional colleges of the province had no set criteria for admission. Even those students were admitted who had obtained less than 60 per cent marks in FSc examination, a professor of the University of Engineering and Technology told Dawn.

“Children of rich parents who could afford high fee of private professional colleges were always welcomed by the respective administrations,” he said.

Admission policy in private professional colleges was based on ‘money making’ instead of providing admission to talented and brilliant students, an official of the higher education department said.

When asked what action would be taken if the new policy was violated by private professional colleges, he said the Higher Education Registration Authority had been empowered to cancel registration of such colleges. In addition, he added, affiliation of these professional colleges with respective engineering and medical universities would also be abolished.