HEC interim placement plan which engages such scholars facing legal hurdles. PHOTO: FILE
Amid a ban on fresh recruitment, clouds of uncertainty are looming on the horizon for contractual professors in many universities.
Fresh PhD graduates hired under the interim programme could all be affected as their contracts have now started expiring.
In the meantime, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) has decided to retain the services of 13 such PhD scholars for six months after their one-year contract recently expired.
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) Interim Placement of Fresh PhDs (IPFP) engages fresh PhD scholars on a one-year contract before they are formally accommodated at different universities across the country.
However, a government ban on new hiring which has been in place since July last year has put the HEC and universities in an awkward position as the contracts of most such PhD scholars have expired or are about to expire.
QAU Vice Chancellor Masoom Yasinzai said that “he did not want to lose them”. He said that the varsity would continue to pay them and their names would be sent to the selection board for formal recruitment once the government lifted the ban. QAU alone has over 50 such teachers.
According to the HEC data, about 1,498 PhD graduates are serving in different universities across the country under the programme, 958 of whom are HEC scholars and 540 are non-HEC.
Under the IPFP, fresh PhD scholars are placed in various public and private sector universities for a period of one year before they are formally inducted. This serves as an impetus for the scholars to excel in their field before securing a permanent position.
They are appointed as assistant professors under a pay package of over Rs80,000 per month.
During this period, it is assumed that the scholars will either be recruited by their host institutions or would find a regular position elsewhere.
“We are quite relieved as we were very uncertain about our future,” said Dr Ahmad Abbas, a teacher at QAU who has been given service extension by the university after his contract under the IPFP expired.
However, dozens of such scholars at several other universities are unsure of what the future holds.
Dr Yasinzai hoped that the government would soon lift the ban on recruitment to pave the way for formal inductions.
Sources at the HEC said that many universities have left the PhD scholars in the lurch after their terms expired by explicitly refusing to extend their contracts.
“I have published three research papers and taught regularly throughout the year but I do not know what will happen once my contract expires next month,” lamented a PhD scholar at Allama Iqbal Open University.
Meanwhile, HEC Executive Director Dr Mukhtar Ahmad has also written a letter to the prime minister requesting that the ban on recruitments be lifted, arguing that many universities have opened new departments which require new staff to operate smoothly.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 5th, 2014.
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