Battle for control: VCs slam ‘one-sided’ amendments proposed for universities act

Say their successors will not forgive them if changes are made.

PESHAWAR:

Vice chancellors of all public sector universities have expressed serious concern over the seemingly unilateral amendments proposed for the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Universities Act 2012.

During a meeting at the University of Peshawar on Saturday, they stressed all stakeholders must be taken into confidence about any amendments to the act, saying failure to do so would be contrary to the promises of the government.

The vice chancellors believed the existing two-year-old K-P Universities Act 2012 resulted from a comprehensive consultative process. They maintained the proposed changes were focused on preferences of individuals and would create unrest among academics on and off campus.

The educationists said some of the changes were equivalent to snatching away the autonomy of public sector universities. They said all proposed changes should be shared with higher education stakeholders and experts, adding that logic and not the whims of individuals must prevail.



“If any of these changes are made unilaterally, as is the case, they will be damaging to higher education in general and universities in particular,” one of the vice chancellors observed.

The educationists said if they allow the proposed changes to be made, their successors will not forgive them for the damage that could potentially be caused.

The meeting was informed that a letter from K-P’s vice chancellors was being written to the Higher Education Commission, asking it to convene an early meeting of the National Vice Chancellors’ Committee so they can express their concerns over efforts to take away the autonomy of higher education institutes. The participants urged a strategy to ensure that universities remain autonomous.

Another letter was written to K-P Governor Mehtab Abbasi, the chancellor of provincial public sector universities, to request a meeting and bring him up to speed with the situation. In yet another letter to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, the academics reminded him that during a previous meeting, he vowed to take the vice chancellors onboard if any changes were made or proposed.

Experts said if the proposed amendments came into effect, every government would appoint VCs based on their political biases. In total, 21 amendments were proposed to the act, out of which 13 focused on appointments, removal and functions of VCs.

Some of the proposed changes:

1.  Vice chancellors of 19 universities in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will be appointed on the instructions of politicians.

2.  The chancellor (governor) will be able to remove ‘any person’ after serving a show-cause notice to him.

3.  The vice chancellor should have leadership quality. An emergency committee consisting of elected members will be formed to exercise the powers of the syndicate in case of any emergency at the university.

4.  Actions taken by the vice chancellor will automatically stand annulled if not authenticated by the syndicate within a month. The vice chancellor will be appointed by the chancellor, who can send him on forced leave for a maximum of 90 days.

5.  Minister for education will be the convener of the search committee which appoints vice chancellors, while chairman of the K-P Assembly Standing Committee on Education will be a member along with eminent scholars and bureaucrats.

6.  The search committee may recommend the removal of a vice chancellor.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2014.