The leadership must realise the ramifications already being faced by universities
SUKKUR: The decision to reduce the higher education budget for FY 2020-21 by another Rs5.9 billion from the earmarked Rs70 billion is inequitable. Academics believe that the cuts would force public-sector universities to increase admissions and semester fees which may discourage a certain number of students from pursuing higher education. It would, among other changes, cause the universities to lay off contractual faculty members, halt new scholarship programmes, disrupt research work, and freeze most of the infrastructure and academic development programmes.
Incessant devaluation of the Pakistani rupee in relation to the US dollar has compounded the problems for higher education development programmes as it has increased the cost of implementation, with all foreign collaborations and scholarships implemented in foreign currency. The outbreak of Covid-19 has led to the postponement of examinations. And with no new enrollments, the universities are already facing revenue shortfall worth million rupees. Vice-chancellors will be led to adopt ad hoc measures to run their universities. The proposition to raise funds from alumni and philanthropists is the last thing one could expect from the current leadership.
Imran Khan is known to have criticised previous governments for making roads and bridges, and pledged to prioritise higher education on coming to power. However, his actions have proved to be a negation of his words. The leadership must realise the ramifications already being faced by universities and re-consider allocations to higher education.
Riaz Mahar
Published in The Express Tribune, June 18th, 2020.
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