Islamabad

HEC to help draft statutes for faculty

Teachers seek service structure, promotion rules

Our Correspondent October 22, 2020

ISLAMABAD:

The apex regulator of higher education in the country on Wednesday assured teachers of support in drafting new service structure and other rules.

This was assured as a delegation of the All Pakistan Universities BPS (basic pay scale) Teachers Association (APUBTA) called on the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Tariq Banuri at the HEC Secretariat.

The teachers briefed Dr Banuri about the problems and challenges faced by the BPS faculty of public sector universities. The APUBTA representatives said that BPS faculty members comprise 88 per cent of all faculty in public sector universities of the country. Despite their numbers, they were facing systematic and multi-faced discrimination and demanded that HEC should set up a service structure for them, including promotion rules, performance-based incentives, and relaxation in the post-doctorate experience.

The HEC chairman assured the delegation that the commission will work closely with them to resolve their problems and promote quality teaching and research.

For this purpose, Dr Banuri asked the teachers to draft a concrete proposal for the formulation of BPS statutes.

The association, however, requested that the HEC obtain the services of a qualified administrative law expert to provide technical assistance to the association for drafting the statutes. The HEC agreed.

Once the draft has been prepared, the HEC Secretariat will review and refine the proposals before submitting their recommendations to the commission for a final decision. The entire process will be completed within three months.

The HEC chairman also urged the faculty to undertake consultations to provide ideas on other critical issues, including the challenge of convergence between the tenure track system (TTS) and BPS faculty under a single system, and encouraging the best people to take up teaching as a profession.

On the issue of post-PhD experience, the HEC chief asked the association to provide concrete data so that a decision on it can be made after considering all relevant factors.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2020.