Accredited education: BZU’s Lahore campus has not met requirements’

VC says campus does not have enough teachers

MULTAN:

Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Vice Chancellor Tahir Amin has said that the Lahore campus of the university has been set up without fulfilling formalities.

Talking to APP, Amin said, “The public-private partnership has failed in this case. The private sector invests in education with profit maximisation as the goal. Owners of the BZU Lahore campus have minted billions of rupees in the name of education.”

He said he had visited the Lahore campus as a member of the committee constituted by the Higher Education Department and was shocked to see that it had seven faculties and 13 departments being run by only three retired professors. “For seven faculties, you should have the same number of deans,” he added. The campus, he said, was working as a full-fledged varsity offering certain courses like physiotherapy.

“How can a campus award a degree with programmes which even the parent university does not offer?” he said.

Amin said, “We need to make a comprehensive education policy so that such issues can be ironed out.”

To another question on improving BZU rankings, the VC said good faculty was key to a university’s success.

“I want to ensure the faculty studying abroad do return. At least 52 per cent faculty positions are currently vacant,” he said. “We need qualified PhD faculty for social sciences, including gender studies. We will meet deficit by creating a conducive environment for faculty members.”

Amin said the government should invest 10 per cent of the country’s GDP in education for at least a decade.

The BZU has restructured its distance learning programme and has introduced rotation of heads and chairmen of departments. Over the next six months, there will be visible improvements in the varsity,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2016.