Apparently unhappy over the government's policy of faculty upgradation approved by the Ministry of Finance, the vice chancellors of public sector universities out burst on Friday over what they called the government had budged from what it had promised.
They said that they were promised in the last vice-chancellors' meeting of giving MP-1 scale but were handed over the promotion letters of MP-2 instead. They asked the HEC chairman to take up the issue of vice-chancellors' appointment/upgradation with the government otherwise it would not be acceptable to them.
The second meeting of the vice chancellors convened by the HEC to discuss the ways and means for promoting higher education, in fact, turn into a heated debate that the promotion criteria set by the HEC for upgradation was too difficult for them to qualify. The HEC was of the view that only such a criteria that would ensure highly qualified people in the higher education level would help bring the country out of the education mess which was created during last fifty years.
The issue whether to implement the old promotion procedure or the new one was decided by a show of hands when the HEC chairman, Dr Atta ur Rehman cautioned that not accepting the new promotion programme would mean allowing the Ministry of Finance and the government to abandon it. It is neither in the benefit of the HEC nor the vice chancellors, he added.
The meeting was nothing more than a discussion of vice chancellors' personal issues rather than formulating recommendations for the promotion of higher education in the country. Interestingly, the HEC announced that it would no longer be involved in university grading and the services of an independent body would be hired for the purpose. The HEC has been facing a lot of criticism since it conducted the first ever university ranking.
Some vice-chancellors alleged that the HEC was not having good relationships with any of the councils, as a result, these councils were creating hurdles for universities when approached for affiliation of different courses.
Earlier, in his opening address, the HEC Chairman said that the last four years have witnessed a renaissance in the higher education sector as universities were coming alive after staying in dormant for over 50 years.
Discussing the series of HEC reforms undertaken in the last four years he said that the 4-year Undergraduate Programme was in the process of implementation and would raise our graduate degree to the international level. Quality Assurance Cells already working in many universities were helping ensure quality but universities also needed to look deeply and improve their quality assurance system and a system of external review as well.
He stated to establish 50 international linkages with the British universities that would help improve quality in our universities. He encouraged the establishment of more such linkages with partners abroad for improvement.
Dr Sohail Naqvi, Executive Director HEC, giving a presentation of the major programmes initiated by HEC in the universities stressed for a lead role by vice chancellors in the successful implementation of these programmes. He said it was HEC's aim to increase students' enrolment in universities from the present 3.6% to 8% and asked universities to set themselves quantifiable targets for the next 15 years.
Under Faculty Development Programme, he informed the gathering that so far 2140 scholars were engaged in the Indigenous PhD programme, 171 engaged in post doctoral studies while 1531 faculty members had received in-service training. Dr Naqvi asked the vice chancellors to streamline faculty selection procedure, encourage faculty to engage in PhD studies, maximise training opportunities for faculty and engage foreign faculty to enhance their standards.
While discussing maintenance of quality assurance he stressed the need for conversion to semester system and embrace semester culture. He reiterated the need to introduce the Tenure Track System to attract high quality faculty, introduce a two-tier quality assurance system of self-evaluation as well as through quality enhancement cells.
The meeting discussed standardisation of academic sessions throughout the country with special emphasis on Total Quality Management (TQM) in academic field and research programmes, which stresses style, total staff and faculty commitment to the satisfaction of the students. Ranking of public sector universities, governance and management of universities and institutes, Tenure Track System, provision of development and recurring funds to newly established universities and development issues came under discussion.