LAHORE: Punjab University Academic Council on Wednesday recommended consolidation of inactive departments to improve the ranking of the institution. PU Vice Chancellor Prof Muhammad Ali Shah chaired the academic council meeting. All the deans of the faculties, heads of departments and professors were present. The council approved the recommendation to transfer the Center of Excellence in Applied Molecular Biology to the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences to support the launching of allied health sciences programs. In 2021, the PU administration had carved out seven new faculties in the name of restructuring and increased the number of faculties from 13 to 20 while new departments were also created and its number increased from 83 to 150 in the campus. However, the current administration was trying to reverse the number of departments and several centers which failed to attract students. The teachers of these centers and departments were getting salaries and did not have to attend any class and it was increasing the financial burden of the university. A senior official on condition of anonymity told Dawn that there were nine departments and centers of the only mass communication faculty and seven of chemistry and four of sociology. Every professor was made head of a centre or department. Some of the departments could not attract a student during the last three years. Prof Shah said that PU will launch various programs in allied health sciences next year to fill the shortage of human resource in the field and promote professional degree programs. He said that approval will be taken from the relevant councils before starting various degrees of allied health sciences. He said that skill-based professional academic programs would be promoted to play a role in meeting the shortage of human resources faced by the country in allied health sciences. He said that inactive departments would be consolidated to improve the ranking of the university and all the decisions will be made with collective wisdom for the betterment of the university. In the meeting, the recommendation to give free education and accommodation to 10 students each from Palestine and Lebanon was also approved. The meeting recommended the termination of the inactive Centre for Econometrics and Quantitative Method under the School of Economics. In the meeting, changes in the curriculum of various programs according to modern requirements and various agenda items were also approved.