My Experience with University of Central Punjab (UCP), Lahore.
You are probably here because you might be wondering whether or not, you should be adding University of Central Punjab to your resume which is gonna serve you for the life time, lol. Let’s get it straight, You’re just not sure whether to take admission in this private university or not? I am no career counselor so do not just take my word for it, contact a professional before making the decision but I will tell you my experience because after all, I have spent 4 years studying here and I can talk from my experience.
Now, If I’ll be honest, I did not even know about the existence of UCP until my FSc result rolled out back in 2017 and it was horrible, I scored so bad that even thinking of applying to Public or even Private universities that are considered to be the best was nothing less than stupid. That’s when I got to know about University of Central Punjab and got in without much of an effort, lol.
What Did I expect: Again, Since I had no idea about UCP when I applied, so I had pretty much no expectations at all. It was all very random for me and not gonna lie, I was thrilled to have gotten accepted into a university with my bad grades so who can complaint? hm?
How did UCP turn out to be? Well, tbh, it wasn’t as bad as you might think it would be. I’ll keep my experience pretty concise and straight forward and talk about the students, the faculty (of course), the scholarships, the campus life, and last but not the least, the management (trust me it’s the management who shapes your overall experience at a university).
The Students: Now, if you are reading this there are high chances that you too belong to Punjab college because trust me, Based on my experience, 70–. 80% students coming to UCP have done their intermediates from PGC. Why is that so? Well, because University of Central Punjab is owned by the person behind Punjab Colleges and he had made sure to provide great scholarships to his college students which I’ll talk about in the scholarship section but for now, let’s talk about the attitude of students. Well, just like any other university, there’s a lot of diversity here. Students come from very rural as well as very urban areas of the country simultaneously. You will see students taking Rikshaw to reach university and then there will be some coming on their Mercedes or Audi as well. Not that the financial status matters but just to give you a clue, you will experience students from pretty much all of the societal backgrounds and honestly, this diversity is important.
The Faculty: I have had some really amazing and some extremely, extremely poor experiences with the teachers in university of central punjab. I cannot talk about all the departments but the senior staff from my department who apparently have done their PhDs or MPhils from highly reputed universities in the world but they do not know how to teach. I do not understand this attitude of senior staff. I have experienced 4–5 such teachers who were very senior but what they taught had barely anything relevant to the course name. However, the younger staff and visiting faculty was amazing! These teachers were very young and they truly were passionate about what they were teaching. If I had the choice, I would have chosen them over the senior and older staff to teach subjects that the senior teachers ruined for me. Overall, the faculty is alright. These problems are present in pretty much all of the universities around Pakistan so it should not be a deal breaker for you.
The Scholarships: Guys I kid you not, the scholarships that UCP offers are unmatched and I do not think any other private institute in the country offers such good discounts when it comes to the fee. They offer PGC, Merit, and Talent based scholarships and it is not even that difficult to maintain them, If you are an average student who can maintain a cgpa over 3.25 (which isn’t difficult), then you will be able to graduate with at least 25% of scholarship maintained. Again, I am talking from experience haha. I have seen students who maintained even 75% of their scholarships throughout their degrees so it’s legit.
The Campus Life: If you’re coming to UCP then there are high chances that you might be doing so because you have heard a lot about how good is their campus life. That’s true. The buildings are amazing and equipped with very modern technologies which you usually do not see in public universities. Moreover, before the corona pandemic had started, there used to be tons of events throughout our semesters ranging from DJ Nights, Qawali Nights to I don’t even know the names of the nights lol. But they were amazing and we used to have A LOT of fun. However, ever since corona has happened, there’s not been a single event like this but UCP can’t be blamed for it, blame corona lol.
The Management: The management is just okayish. I won’t even call them average because whenever I had to get some clerical work done, I had to face their rude behaviors and bad attitudes and they all act like they are very superior and the students are inferior. If anyone from UCP’s recruitment team is reading this, guys? please hire some parhay likhay people in your management please because the ones that exist already, their attitude is nowhere near professional.
Concluding it all, If you are looking forward to take admission in UCP and the doors of other famous universities have been shut on you lol then go ahead and pay your fee. The experience won’t be as bad as people in facebook groups suggest but it depends upon your attitude as well. If you are coming to actually study and learn something, UCP will provide you that and groom you in a lot better way than you’re expecting. However, if you are only coming here for the Mahaul as majority of the people do which is highly disappointing, then guys, please don’t. First get your priorities straight and come up with the mind to study and not just enjoy the environment because if at the end of the day, if you manage to keep your social life and studies in balance, only then you will be able to truly enjoy your university life. Or else, get ready for 4 years full of stress and bad grades lol which I am sure, none of you want.