ISLAMABAD, Feb 22: The syndicate of Quaid-i-Azam University, in a meeting held on Saturday, agreed in principle to change selection procedure for the recruitment of lecturers and assistant professors, Dawn has learnt.

According to reliable sources, the syndicate has accepted the proposals given by the faculty members of the university. The proposals suggested that applicants for the posts of lecturers and assistant professors should appear in an initial written test and viva voce.

After that, a selection board, comprising vice-chancellor, heads of the respective departments, deans of social or natural sciences, two subject specialists, representatives of Higher Education Commission and the education ministry, would conduct the final interview.

However, the new rule will not apply to those candidates who have completed their PhDs in the subjects, against which they are applying for the job.

Dr Dushka Hyder Syed, chairperson of history department, who had been leading the faculty members for the change in the recruitment policy, told this reporter there was a dire need to introduce this new system to get quality teachers.

She said, over a period of time, teaching had been transformed into a highly specialized field, unlike in the past, when this (teaching) was the last option of university graduates.

Expressing her satisfaction over the introduction of the new method, she said: “With the initial written and oral examinations before appearing in front of the selection board, the faculty members of the respective departments will be able to select some worthy staff for teaching which, to me, is a highly demanding job.”

Whereas, under the previous practice, the university advertised such vacancies and called all those applicant for the interview who met the criteria. Therefore, at times, for one vacancy, the selection board had to interview 40 candidates in one day. In this way, a candidate was selected, apparently with good academic records, but irrespective of the fact whether he/she could be a good teacher or not.

“Writing skill is a must in teaching profession, hence, we (teachers) have recommended written examination for the applicants so their writing ability can be assessed,” the history department chairperson said.

She said with the current system of teachers’ selection in the QAU, the teaching standards had suffered a lot. She said the QAU was the only public sector university in the country, where PhD students’ research work was evaluated by the reputed international universities.

Therefore, to meet international standards, it was necessary that the university had quality teachers. Answering a question, Dr Syed said there was no self-steering promotion policy and, at every step — assistant professor, associate professor and professor — the university advertised a post. In this way, the QAU teachers had to compete with the applicants who could be from any other university.

The Area Study Centre has already adopted new procedure for the recruitment of lecturers, she said, adding that “it is nice to know that the syndicate has agreed to our proposal which will go a long way in improving teaching standards of the QAU”.

Dr Syed has been given the additional duty of controller examination of the university as an inquiry is underway to investigate the alleged involvement of her predecessor, Mujawar Hussain Shah, in a PhD thesis scam.

When asked for comments in this regard, she said: “I am not part of that inquiry committee, hence I have no information about the committee’s proceedings”.