Vice chancellors: Interviews to begin in first week of January
Doctors practising here and abroad have applied for KEMU, UHS posts.
LAHORE:
A search committee will begin interviewing candidates for the vice chancellor positions at King Edward Medical University (KEMU) and the University of Health Sciences (UHS) from the first week of January.
A senior Health Department official said on the condition of anonymity that the interviews would begin on January 3.
Khawaja Salman Rafique, the special assistant to the chief minister on health, told The Express Tribune that the applicants included doctors of Pakistani origin who were working abroad. He said all the eligible candidates would be interviewed and the jobs offered to the ones that merited them. “All the candidates are of high integrity and known for their professionalism. No favour will be given to anybody in the selection,” he added.
The search committee 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 Khawaja Salman Rafique.
Under new terms and conditions drawn up by the search committee, the jobs will be non-practising, meaning that the vice chancellors will not be able to continue with their private practices. Advertisements in local and international newspapers inviting applications for the jobs state: “The post(s) shall be completely non-practising.” Previously, there had been no such bar on vice chancellors, or on the principals of public medical colleges.
Rafique said that the terms and conditions were decided by the committee with consensus. The members felt that heading a medical university was a full time job and the new vice chancellors should devote all their energies to the institutions.
He denied that the decision was meant to favour a candidate from abroad or to sideline clinicians. He said several senior surgeons and physicians had applied for the jobs, knowing full well that they would have to give up their lucrative private practices. He said that the position of vice chancellor was extremely prestigious.
A Health Department official said that several senior professors had decided not to apply because of the bar on private practice. According to the advertisements, the take-home salary of the vice chancellors will be between Rs300,000 and Rs500,000 a month.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 23rd, 2012.
A search committee will begin interviewing candidates for the vice chancellor positions at King Edward Medical University (KEMU) and the University of Health Sciences (UHS) from the first week of January.
A senior Health Department official said on the condition of anonymity that the interviews would begin on January 3.
Khawaja Salman Rafique, the special assistant to the chief minister on health, told The Express Tribune that the applicants included doctors of Pakistani origin who were working abroad. He said all the eligible candidates would be interviewed and the jobs offered to the ones that merited them. “All the candidates are of high integrity and known for their professionalism. No favour will be given to anybody in the selection,” he added.
The search committee 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 Khawaja Salman Rafique.
Under new terms and conditions drawn up by the search committee, the jobs will be non-practising, meaning that the vice chancellors will not be able to continue with their private practices. Advertisements in local and international newspapers inviting applications for the jobs state: “The post(s) shall be completely non-practising.” Previously, there had been no such bar on vice chancellors, or on the principals of public medical colleges.
Rafique said that the terms and conditions were decided by the committee with consensus. The members felt that heading a medical university was a full time job and the new vice chancellors should devote all their energies to the institutions.
He denied that the decision was meant to favour a candidate from abroad or to sideline clinicians. He said several senior surgeons and physicians had applied for the jobs, knowing full well that they would have to give up their lucrative private practices. He said that the position of vice chancellor was extremely prestigious.
A Health Department official said that several senior professors had decided not to apply because of the bar on private practice. According to the advertisements, the take-home salary of the vice chancellors will be between Rs300,000 and Rs500,000 a month.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 23rd, 2012.