Vice chancellor posts: Senior doctors opt out over job requirements

UHS and KEMU vice chancellor posts declared non-practising for the first time.

LAHORE:

Senior Pakistani doctors are unlikely to apply for the vice chancellor positions at the University of Health Sciences and Kind Edward Medical University because it will require them to give up their private practices.

According to advertisements in local and international media inviting applications for the top jobs at the two universities, “the post(s) shall be totally non-practising”. This is a new requirement introduced by the search committee set up to fill the posts. There has never been a bar on practising on previous vice chancellors. Health Department records show no such bars on principals of public medical colleges.

A senior official in the Punjab government acknowledged that the application criteria would discourage senior professors and doctors from applying as it would require them to drop their lucrative private practices. He said that he expected the next vice chancellors for the two universities to be Pakistanis currently practising in Saudi Arabia or other foreign countries and looking to return home. “The chief minister wants to appoint someone from abroad who can devote their full attention to the university,” he said.

“I will not quit my private practice to apply to become vice chancellor, and I don’t think anyone else in my position would be ready to do so either,” said Professor Atif Kazmi, one of only two professors in grade 21 in the Punjab. “This has never been a requirement before.” He added that he made more money from his private practice than the salary of a vice chancellor.

“The take-home salary mentioned in the advertisements is from Rs300,000 to Rs500,000 per month. All senior clinicians have private practices bringing in more than this,” said another senior professor on the condition of anonymity. “The senior-most professors who are usually favourites for the vice chancellor slots have private practices worth millions. They will not give them up to become a vice chancellor. The non-practising requirement has ruled them out of the race.”

The advertisements also state that the applicant must have at least eight research publications as professors in indexed medical journals recognised by the Higher Education Commission and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.

The senior professor said that this was another stumbling block for the senior practising professors. “Clinicians don’t normally write research papers here,” he said. “It is the professors for basic sciences, such as anatomy or physiology, who write research papers as they don’t see patients.” Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique said that the decision to make the post non-practising was made unanimously by the search committee, which consists of former federal minister Sartaj Aziz, Lahore University of Management Sciences Pro Chancellor Syed Babar Ali, former Allama Iqbal Medical College principal Professor SAR Gardezi, former chief secretary Pervez Masood, and Rafique himself. “The committee was unanimous that we need full-time vice chancellors,” said Rafique.

Asked if the application criteria were deliberately designed to exclude the senior clinicians, he said, “The slot of vice chancellor is very respectable. There are people who think they have earned enough money and want to serve the nation and they would be ready to serve as vice chancellor. We have kept it open and Pakistani doctors working abroad who fulfil the criteria may be appointed,” he said.

He said that the selection process would be completed in December.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2012.