Universities are subject to various laws and regulations that govern their operations. However, the Act, statutes, rules and regulations currently prevails in Pakistani Universities are in desperate need of reform for a number of reasons including curriculum’ reform, quality, inequity, Corporatisation, research and innovation, governance etc. I am glad to see a notification from higher education, archives & libraries department, KPK about a committee in order to make recommendations for amendments in KPK Universities Act 2012 with objective to uplift higher education in the province and prioritize student’s welfare. The Committee shall take input/ suggestions from the public sector Universities of KPK for the proposed amendments, identify shortcomings in various provisions of the KPK Universities Act 2012 and recommend proposals for amendments aimed at the uplift of higher education and removal of shortcomings in the light of stakeholders input. I am much hopeful from the Committee members that they would finalize the recommendations after thorough analysis & examination of the Act. It would be more better to call at least a conference on provincial level through inviting most experienced and relevant academicians and administration e.g. retired and incumbent Vice Chancellors, Registrars, Deans, representatives from HED and HEC etc. for deliberations and decisions. An email and latter to all stakeholders and even creation of a WhatsApp group can bring a fruitful results. Higher education, archives & libraries department, KPK is lucky enough to have Dr. Arshad Khan as the secretary of the department whose devotions & dedication, humbleness as well as responsive attitude is much admirable. I had many conversations with him related to the challenges of tertiary institutions and always received positive response and even prompt feedback. I am confident to have an exemplary Act in the presence of Dr. Arshad Khan whose understanding and familiarity about higher education is beyond the words.
I had wrote a number of articles regarding refurbishing and overhauling of the laws, especially the Act of the universities and deficiencies & dearth present in various acts of the universities. As I early wrote that the appointment process of the Vice Chancellors always has been marred by allegations of irregularities, favouritism and even corruption. Many of the Professors have been appointed/ assigned the position of Vice Chancellors who are terminated from other institutions of Pakistan and even with dual jobs. Many have been even removed because of their alleged involvement in corruption, favouritism, moral turpitude, and misuse of authority. It is very alarming to hand over an institution to a black sheep or a professional of bad fame/repute. Therefore, it is imperative to form an act which would have remedies for such type of challenges. We need an act in which the Vice Chancellor is a leader rather a boss. All the stakeholders and managers like Registrar, Deans, PVC’s must be given due status and autonomy to run the affairs smoothly and contribute for the institution. Following are some more suggestions for a balanced Act.
- The positions of the “Visitor” and “Deputy Vice Chancellors” and a “Court” may be included under officers and Authorities Section. The details are already available in one of my article.
- Pro-vice-chancellor, Deans and Deputy Vice Chancellors may either be appointed directly by the Chancellor’s office through a comparative and competitive documentary base process without involving the Vice Chancellors or appointed by the authorities of the Universities instead of government/Chancellor and they may be appointed on the basis of performance instead of only seniority to be evaluated by the Syndicate/ Senate against the key performance indicators to be set up by the Government.
- There must be a formula of balance of powers among Vice Chancellor, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellors to grant the opportunity to serve with autonomy and contribute equally.
- Minimize the Political and bureaucratic involvement in the authorities of the Universities.
- More significance on Community engagement on local, national and international level.
- Financial autonomy under check & balance may be given to the authorities of the universities.
Higher education, archives & libraries department, KPK is pro-active and I expect the same approach and attitude from HED Punjab because of the recent appointment of Dr. Farrukh Naveed as a secretary who is not only a ray of hope but the universities has a lot of expectations from him as a brother of a star of Higher Education sector and the current Executive Director of HEC, Prof. Dr. Zia ul Qayum. I hope that HED Punjab and other province may sit together under the supervision of HEC to make a uniform act at national level by prioritizing student’s welfare. The Bologna Process is an excellent example for all the stakeholders of tertiary institutions in this regard.
The author is a professor of Islamic Studies at Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan.
