Totally dependent: HEC cuts Sindh Agri Uni’s budget by Rs87m

University can’t charge high tuition as a majority of students come from rural Sindh and Balochistan.

HYDERABAD:

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has cut the Sindh Agriculture University’s (SAU) budget by Rs87 million to bring it to Rs608 million.

“Despite the budget cuts, we will have to bear the burden of 15% staff salary and pension increases,” said vice chancellor Dr Abdul Qadir Mughal in an open letter to the HEC on Wednesday. “This means an additional expense of Rs156 million.”

The SAU in Tandojam faces a deficit of Rs255 million and the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Agriculture College (SZABAC) in Larkana now has a reduced budget of Rs51.43 million.

SAU focuses on agriculture engineering, animal husbandry, veterinary science, crop production and crop protection. “The university will now have to deal with a shortage of Rs255 million,” lamented Mughal.

The university is dependent on HEC grants. “We can collect a mere fraction for university expenses from tuitions fees and research farms,” he said. “A majority of students come from underdeveloped areas in Sindh and Balochistan. We cannot charge them a lot of money.”

According to the SAU spokesperson, more than 258 students are enrolled for the PhD programmes and 852 students  for the MSc degree. They have more than 1,110 postgraduate students. The university has appealed to the HEC to reconsider their budget and provide the SAU with an additional sum of Rs226 million and an additional sum of Rs28 million for SZABAC.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st,  2011.