Major changes expected in eligibility criteria of VCs

Sources say upper age limit of VCs will be relaxed; officials foresee some legal hurdles

LAHORE: Major changes were discussed in the meeting of a committee formed to appoint vice chancellors at public sector universities in Punjab.

A 10-member committee was formed by the Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif on June 21 to review minimum requirements and terms of references (TORs) for the appointment of VCs.



According to an official privy to developments in the working committee, there was a debate over three major changes to the current requirements, criteria and procedures.

The first was to eliminate the age limit of an appointee. "This will be a major change with possible legal hurdles as the government will have to amend the universities' act to implement it," he said. According to the current rules, a person should be no older than 65 years of age to qualify for a vice chancellor post.

The second major point of the debate was the requirement of a PhD degree for a candidate and whether it should be made compulsory or preferential. The official said that the third topic of debate was the process of announcing vacancies for international candidates. He said such a step would help bring qualified academicians with international exposure to local universities.

The members of the committee included Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanauallah, Higher Education Minister Syed Raza Ali Gillani, Finance Minister Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Chairperson Dr Umar Saif, Law and PA Department secretary, Higher Education Department (HED) secretary, Finance Department secretary, secretary (Regulations) S&GAD, Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Chairperson Dr Nizamuddin and LUMS Senior Professor Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi.

Although the Lahore High Court (LHC), on April 27, had given its nod to the provincial government to appoint VCs, the government’s appointees and nominees were called into question as they did not fulfil the minimum criteria.



According to the order issued by the Lahore High Court, HEC had the power to set minimum standards in higher education institutions. Simultaneously, the ruling stated that the province had been empowered to develop higher and more stringent standards compared to that at federal level. However, the standards could not fall below the federal benchmarks.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2017.