ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has deplored the sudden cut in the higher education budget by another Rs5.90 billion from the committed Indicative Budget Ceiling of Rs70.00 billion for fiscal year 2020-2021, saying the move will dismantle the country's higher education systems by forcing the shutdown of universities.

The two-day 36th meeting of the commission, the governing body of the HEC, which was conducted online, concluded on Saturday. The meeting was chaired by Chairman HEC Tariq Banuri.

The government has earmarked Rs64 billion for higher education sector in the budget for 2020-2021 against Rs59 billion earmarked for the current fiscal year.

The commission unanimously deplored the sudden cut in the higher education budget by another Rs5.90 billion from the committed Indicative Budget Ceiling of Rs70.00 billion for 2020-2021, and emphasised the move would dismantle the country's higher education systems by forcing the shutdown of universities, which were already suffering from historically unprecedented budgetary shortfalls and the impact of the Covid crisis.

The members stressed upon the government to reconsider its decision, and take immediate steps to appropriately fund the universities in order to protect access to and quality of higher education.

The commission stressed that without adequate investment on higher education, the youth of Pakistan would never acquire the competencies needed to develop and compete internationally.

The commission thoroughly reviewed the HEC funding formula for universities, took into account various proposals, and decided that for 2020-2021, the actual total allocation of 2019-2020 would be treated as base plus need grants, accounting for 85 percent of the total allocation, while the remaining 15 percent would be treated as a performance grant, allocated on the basis of the number of publications, the number and amount of research grants received, as well as number of PhD faculty and students.

It was also agreed that for FY 2021-2022 and beyond, a new funding methodology would be developed on the principles of equity, needs, and credit for performance.

The commission amended the tenure track statutes by indexing TTS salaries to the comparable BPS scale plus a 35 percent TTS Premium, thus introducing automatic adjustments of future TTS salaries in line with increases in BPS salary scales.

Consistent with the international practice, the commission increased the maximum time limit for the tenure decision from the current six years to nine years, and endorsed collection of granular data of the TTS faculty separately in the HEMIS (Higher Education Management Information System) to help universities and the HEC maintain proper oversight over the progress of the TTS faculty, and improve transparency and fairness of recruitment, promotion and tenure.

The commission appreciated the comprehensive work done by the HEC in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, to minimise academic disruption, develop and guide universities to acquire online readiness, provide supplementary resources of Rs1.20 billion, deploy live dashboard to monitor quality of online delivery, build free online academic content and resources, and motivate students to continue learning.

The commission impressed upon the government to support HEC initiatives viz Taleem Bundle, University Support Package, etc., and advised the HEC to resolve connectivity issues faced by students, and use platforms such as virtual think tanks to carve out imaginative solutions.