LAHORE - The Government College University Lahore, adopting the new rules laid down by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), has made the GAT-General Test a pre-requisite condition for all candidates applying for the admissions to MPhil, MS programmes. According to the new rules, the GAT-General conducted by the National Testing Service with a minimum 50 per cent cumulative score will be required at the time of applying for admissions to Mphil, MS. GCU Registrar Faisal Khursheed advised the interested students to appear in the GAT-General Test to be held on July 4, 2010 and September 12, 2010 as per schedule of NTS. However, he said the GAT-General Test remained valid for a period of two years only. Talking about the eligibility criteria, he said that BA, BSc (Hons) or MA/MSc students who have obtained minimum 2.5/4.00 CGPA or 60 percent marks in annual system are eligible to apply in MS, MPhil programmes in the fields of science and technology and arts and social sciences. However, he said that the criteria is 2.0/4.00 CGPA or 50 percent marks for MPhil in the fields of languages, Islamic and oriental learning. Talking about the admission criteria, he said that merit shall be determined on the basis of marks scored in BA, BSc (Hons) or MA, MSc examinations, GCU Entry Test and Interview. The registrar said the GC University is offering Mphil, MS 25 programmes including Entrepreneurship & SME Management, Banking & Financial Economics, Botany, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Clinical Psychology, Economics, English, Environmental Science, History, Mathematics, Persian, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Statistics, Urdu and Zoology. He said the university has recently started Mphil, MS programmes in Philosophy, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Islamic Studies, Forensic Chemistry and Microbiology. Earlier, the GCU made it compulsory for students to qualify Subject GRE International or GAT whichever is applicable to get admission in GCU PhD programmes.