Government's 35% TTS promise falls short

Professors get mere 4% raise as assistants receive 55% increase, faculty cries foul

ISLAMABAD:

After five years, the federal government has increased salaries of foreign-qualified university faculty, but the revision has further complicated the issue, as professors have been given a maximum 4% raise while assistant professors received up to 55%.

The notification issued by the Ministry of Finance on Friday also appears to violate the federal government's decision that approved a 35% salary increase for the specialised category – the Tenure Track System (TTS) faculty. However, the finance ministry did not make the calculations for the pay packages, which officials said were provided by the Higher Education Commission. The federal government ratified the prime minister's decision of September 2021 to allow a 35% increase in TTS salary and approved the revision with effect from July 1, states the notification.

The TTS faculty association has rejected the proposed increase due to glaring anomalies where professors received a maximum 4% increase after five years but assistant professors received over 55%.

The office memorandum is legally and administratively flawed and requires immediate reconsideration as it appears inconsistent with the PM's Task Force recommendations, judicial directions, and constitutional principles of fairness, according to the association. The notification states that the basic pay of an employee in service in June 2026 will be fixed in the TTS-2026 on a point-by-point basis at the stage corresponding to that occupied above the minimum of existing TTS salaries. It added that the financial impact of the proposed revision may be met by universities from their own resources and the federal government shall not assume any additional liability. The notification was issued days before a scheduled meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, chaired by PPP's Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, to discuss the issue. The TTS, a performance-based, contract-based faculty employment system, was introduced in 2002 to attract high-quality PhD researchers to public universities with a commitment to double salaries compared to professors hired at basic pay scale (BPS).

However, instead of receiving any advantage, their salaries had been frozen since 2021. These highly qualified researchers and professors have faced at least three major inflation surges since their last raise, including record inflation of 38%. The last recruitment under the TTS was made in 2020, and since then, these specialised professionals have experienced attrition with no salary increase. According to the notification, the minimum salary of a professor increased from Rs394,875 to Rs407,230 – a Rs12,355 monthly raise or 3.1% after five years. The maximum salary after 15 stages was approved at Rs712,030 – an increase of Rs27,580 or 4%.

But the associate professor received a minimum increase of Rs107,560 or 40.8% – from Rs263,250 to Rs370,810. The maximum increase for an associate professor was Rs152,020 or 31%, with the last stage set at Rs645,610, according to the office memorandum. For assistant professors, the minimum salary increased by 64% to Rs288,020 from Rs175,500, while the maximum salary rose by 55% to Rs553,820 – an increase of Rs197,345, according to the notification.

The faculty raised serious objectionsto the revised pay packages, saying the revised structure creates irrational anomalies where senior faculty at a lower rank can earn more than newly promoted faculty at a higher rank. An assistant professor at stage-5 will get Rs376,620 compared to Rs370,810 of an associate professor at stage-0. Similarly, an associate professor at stage-3 will earn Rs407,450, slightly more than the Rs407,230 starting salary of a professor. The association also claimed the Prime Minister's Task Force recommended benchmarking TTS salaries with gross BPS of PIDE salaries plus 35% premium and annual indexation, but the notification did not implement these recommendations, and professors receive only a negligible increase despite nearly six years without revision. It added that important allowances were excluded while BPS faculty continues to receive them separately, while TTS salaries remain all-inclusive, defeating the objective of parity. The comparison should be between university BPS and TTS faculty performing identical duties, and the adopted methodology creates an artificial disparity in violation of court orders. Instead of attracting and retaining quality researchers, the notification discourages promotion, compresses salaries, widens disparities, and weakens the Tenure Track System, claimed the association.