Financial crisis may force closure of over 50% K-P varsities
“We still have foreign debt of $130 billion and $73 billion due in three years. Our deficit for next three years is a minimum of $20 to $30 billion. This is a financial emergency,” says PBF CEO, Ahmad Jawad. photo: file
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to shut down or merge some of the universities in the near future because of their ever deepening financial crisis.
Sources in the Higher Education Department informed The Express Tribune that there are 34 universities in K-P but due to the financial problems the government wants to shut down more than 20 universities.
They added that due to the financial crisis, it has been decided in a high level meeting to shut down some of the universities or merge them together in order to save money.
Sources added that the government has already formed a task force to submit a report on universities experiencing acute financial crisis.
“Some of the universities are knee-deep in the financial crunch and mismanagement has further worsened their situation,” he said.
“The chief minister has constituted a task force for the purpose of assessing financial sustainability of the public sector universities in the province,” he added.
Minister for Higher Education, Meena Khan Afridi, is the chairman of the task force while KMU Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Ziaul Haq is the convener. Prof Dr Abdus Salam Khalis, Prof Dr Jamil Ahmad, Prof Dr Yurid Ahsan Zia, Prof Dr. Abdullah Sadiq, Prof Dr Qibla Ayaz, Prof Dr Hafeezullah, Prof Dr Usman Ghani, Prof Dr Gul Muhammad, and Prof Dr Zahoor Khan are the members.
The task force will assess the current state of the higher education in K-P, including issues related to quality, financial sustainability of universities, industry-academia linkage, professional education resource utilization and financial issues.
Central General Secretary of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) Dr Muhammad Uzair while talking to The Express Tribune said that the academia is fully supporting this decision of the government and agree with the decision to shrink the number of the universities as it has many advantages.
“It will not only give financial benefit to the government, but will also improve the standard of education,” he said, adding that “previous government as well as the PTI governments for the last 15 years were just increasing the number of universities and recruiting people on political basis.”
He recalled that the general body of Peshawar University Teachers Association (PUTA) had already passed a resolution calling for a reduction in the the overall number of universities.
He added that, within the University of Peshawar (UoP), there were four other Universities: Agriculture University, Islamia College University and the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Peshawar.
He added that identical departments such as physics and chemistry should be made one department as it will improve the standard of education and address financial difficulties.
“The government just pays salaries, like one VC and dean of a university gets Rs0.8 million excluding fuel, housing, and other facilities, but this decision will considerably reduce university expenditures,” he noted.
He further added that at UoP there were more than 17,000 students and 420 faculty members, and that those students and faculty members should be adjusted in other universities.
He said that the government should seek advice from the teaching faculty rather than making decisions behind closed doors. “If this decision is implemented, it will improve the standard of education in the province, and the government will save billions of rupees, which could then be reinvested in the higher education sector.”
When contacted, Minister for Higher Education Meena Khan Afridi said that there was no plan to shrink or shut down universities and that such information was baseless. He added, “We have made a task force for the improvement of universities, and other matters will also be reviewed by the committee to enhance the education sector.”
He further acknowledged that universities are in a financial crisis but assured that the current provincial government is keen to improve the education sector and make universities self-reliant, stating that closing down universities is not an option.