AIOU plans centres in Sindh

Varsity’s executive council approves annual budget

ISLAMABAD:

The Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) on Monday approved its annual budget for the fiscal year 2020-21, including funds for building two new regional offices in Sindh apart from others across the country.

The varsity, however, has decided to approach the apex regulator of higher education institutions and even the relevant ministries for increasing AIOU’s share in grants.

The executive council of the varsity met at its main campus on Monday to deliberate over the annual budget for the fiscal year 2020-21, including recurring, non-development expenditures and development expenses.

Chaired by AIOU Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Ziaul Qayyum, the documents prepared by the varsity’s finance department were reviewed.

Dr Qayyum said that the university is expanding its footprint across the country, for which it wants to build customized buildings. In this regard, he unveiled plans to build three new regional offices. Two of these will be built in Sindh, one each in Moro and Sukkur respectively. The third will be built in Muzaffarabad.

Moreover, money has been set aside for acquiring land for and constructing regional offices and centres in other parts of the country as well.

The vice-chancellor, however, told the forum that the varsity continues to face a cash crunch. He said that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) provides a grant equivalent to 40-50 per cent grant of a university’s budget to meet its recurring expenses. However, in the case of AIOU, the HEC provides just four-five per cent as an annual grant.

But last year, this slice grew even smaller.

Prof Qayyum said that the HEC had promised to provide AIOU with Rs410 million in the outgoing fiscal year, but later only provided it with Rs22 million, which was less than a percentage of the varsity’s recurring budget.

He appreciated his predecessors for setting up an endowment fund since it was proving critical in meeting the development expenses of the varsity.

The council expressed concerns over the little money provided by the government and authorized the vice-chancellor to take up the issue with the HEC chief and even with the ministries of finance and education.

He added that recently the university had further solidified its endowment fund by adding Rs1.5 billion to it.

Later, the university’s treasurer said that strict austerity measures have been taken during the outgoing financial year 2019-20, to conserve their limited financial resources.

The AIOU executive council approved the university’s budgetary allocations for revising the over-time payment to low-paid employees, particularly those working in the second shift. It also approved a proposal to stop deducting transport allowance from employees during the lockdown, imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19).

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2020.