LAHORE, Feb 9: The Governor’s Committee on Better Governance and Management of Universi-ties has recommended that all university bodies be restructured to make them ‘manageable.’

The committee, comprising vice-chancellors of all the universities in the province, which met at Punjab University’s New Campus, resolved that the university management bodies — senate, syndicate, academic council and affiliation, equivalence and discipline committees — had become almost unmanageable.

The committee said that some of the bodies included public representatives, who had no role beyond furthering their vested interests.

The committee noted that the Quaid-i-Azam University, the Fatima Jinnah Women University and the Lahore University for Women had no senates. It recommended abolition of senate in all Punjab universities.

The committee noted that the strength of academic councils had increased to around 300 members. It observed that the pyramid of lecturers, assistant professors, associate professors and professors had been reversed over the years. As a result, professors now outnumbered junior teachers. It resolved that the number of council members should be reduced.

The committee would soon submit its recommendations to the governor.

A committee member told Dawn that the government had constituted the committee to develop recommendations to bring the system of teaching, research, evaluation, examination and curricula in line with international standards.

Participants of the meeting included the Punjab University vice-chancellor, Lt-Gen Arshad Mahmood (retired), University of Engineering and Technology’s Lt-Gen Muhammad Akram (retired), Fatima Jinnah Women University’s Prof Najma Najam, Bahauddin Zakariya University’s Dr Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry, Islamia University Bahawalpur’s Dr Munir Akhtar, UET Taxila’s Prof Habibullah Jamal, Lahore College for Women’s principal and Prof Bushra Mateen.