Higher education reforms: Working groups propose clipping powers of vice chancellors

PESHAWAR:

Working groups are mulling over reforms in higher education, including amending the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Universities Act, 2012 and curbing the powers of vice chancellors. The proposals are to be finalised this week.

Officials privy to the matter said suggestions under discussion include evaluating and monitoring the performance of vice chancellors, restructuring the Higher Education Department (HED) and dissolving the basic pay scale (BPS) system.

“Dozens of suggestions have been forwarded by educationists and copies of the suggested reforms have been handed over to University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Vice Chancellor Imtiaz Gillani and HED Secretary Farah Hamid,” said one official requesting anonymity.

A working group member told The Express Tribune experts stressed on starting the evaluation and monitoring of VCs immediately since they are political appointees. “Once the VC’s tenure ends, they leave without being bothered about their performance,” he added.

“The VC appoints people on grades 1 to 21 and makes the authorities happy by recruiting their men. We need to clamp down on their powers,” maintained the working group member. “Once the appointing authority is satisfied, they reward the VC by giving him an extension,” he alleged.

He claimed several VCs were held for plagiarism, corruption and mismanagement, but could not be questioned because they had strong ‘supporters.’ “This practice is no more acceptable and the appointment and extension of a VC will now depend on his performance.”

Advisor to K-P Assembly speaker and working group member, Abbas Khan was also critical of VCs. “You can replace a governor and a chief minister, but you can’t even think about replacing a vice chancellor,” he claimed.

Khan said the BPS system will also be done away with, adding this will help recruit people based on merit, not political affiliations. “The Universities Act, 2012 needs immediate amendments. Unless this happens, hurdles in providing quality education to students cannot be removed,” he said.

The working groups met over three days starting August 19 and were broken down into three sub-groups with 11 members. The initiative was taken on the directives of the K-P government. The meetings were also attended by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Central Vice President Shibli Faraz, Chief Financial Officer Siraj Ahmad Khan and information technology expert Shair Ali Arbab.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2013.