Tenure track system of salaries revived

'System produced encouraging results when used previously'

KARACHI:

The Government of Pakistan has decided to revive the tenure track system of appointment of faculty members at universities in the country.

The government has decided to significantly enhance the tenure track system with a 35 per cent increase in salaries across the board and 100 per cent increase in salary being given to the best performing academician," confirmed an official statement from the Prime Minister's National Task Force on Science and Technology.

It said that this was a contractual system of appointments in which assistant professors, associate professors and full professors were appointed for periods of six , four and three years, respectively, with two international evaluations carried out by eminent experts at each stage.

These six foreign evaluations of research calibre and productivity of every person ensures that only the best faculty members will get permanent jobs and that the weaker ones will be eliminated, it added.

It is pertinent to mention here that the tenure track system was introduced by Professor Attaur Rahman when he was chairperson of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Over the years, it has deteriorated while salary increases in the BPS system have continued to rise so that the difference between the two systems could be negated. The track system of appointments had been an outstanding success as borne out by a study carried out by the HEC.

It solidly demonstrated that the research productivity of faculty in the tenure track system was several fold higher than that of the faculty members employed in the standard BPS system, the statement said.

It added that this major problem was presented to the prime minister by Prof Rahman, who is the current chairperson of the Prime Minister's National Task Force on Science and Technology. The prime minister was informed that this system of appointments had attracted the best minds both from within the country and from abroad to universities, read the statement.