Amended universities act: Govt’s bid to tighten control over universities

Proposed changes to tenure, appointment process raise alarm among VCs.

PESHAWAR: Tabled in the provincial assembly earlier this week, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Universities (Amendment) Act 2015 proposes some drastic changes to the legislation framed under the previous Awami National Party-led provincial government in 2012.

Vice chancellors of various public universities are already speaking out against the proposed amendments as they feel the changes are aimed at strengthening the government’s grip over institutes of higher education. On the flipside, the amendments can also be seen as the government’s bid to end the control various groups associated with other political parties have in varsities.

Authority to remove

The first amendment to Section 10 of K-P Universities Act 2012 has made it mandatory for the vice chancellor to remove a member from the varsity’s senate, by substituting the word ‘may’ with ‘shall’.

The newly-inserted section (ii) empowers the VC to remove senate members at his discretion on substantiated allegations of “gross misconduct, inefficiency, corruption and moral turpitude”.The addition also eases the process of a senate member’s removal as the VC shall only have to get a resolution passed by the body with a simple majority. The 2012 act required three-fourths of the senate’s approval to remove a member.

The hiring and firing of VCs

Similarly, changes to Section 10 of the original act, pertaining to the VC’s appointment, are likely to be aimed at getting control over the process. Proposed amendment sub-section (i) eases the requirements laid down in the 2012 act, stating the government may determine what qualifications a VC shall possess.

Under the original law, the convener of the VC search committee—responsible for finding suitable candidates for the post—was the minister for higher education, however, with the proposed amendment, the position has been given to the provincial chief secretary. Along with the higher education minister, the chairperson of the relevant provincial assembly standing committee will also not be part of the search committee which will be dominated by ‘babus’.

The government has also suggested changes to VCs’ tenure. A proposed amendment to sub-clause 7 reduces the officer’s tenure to a single term of three years which can be extended only once based on a performance evaluation. In comparison, the original act gave four years to VCs and multiple terms.

Much to vice chancellors’ alarm, the amendments also make their removal easy; sub-clause 8 of Section 12 empowers the chancellor to remove a VC after a resolution passed by senate with a simple majority. This is in stark contrast to the 2012 law which requires the chancellor to make a reference to the senate for a VC’s removal, and a two-thirds majority approval.

If the amended law is passed, the chancellor can remove a VC at his discretion on substantiated allegations after serving them a show-cause notice and hearing their explanation.

Changes have also been suggested to the appointment procedure of other key varsity officials, registrar, treasurer and examinations controller.

Senate and syndicate

An amendment proposed to Section 19 of the 2012 law increases senate members to 28 from 23 and replaces the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) or his nominee with a retired high court judge as senate member. Similarly, an amendment to Section 22 has also removed the PHC chief justice or his nominee from the university’s syndicate.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2015.