October 23, 2003	Thursday	Sha’aban 26, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 22: The Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) faculty has expressed its concern over the Tenure Track System (TTS) introduced by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), official sources told Dawn.

The Commission has recently announced the TTS, whereby new appointments starting from assistant professor in the public sector universities would be made on contract basis, and after every three years their contract would be renewed on the basis of performance reviewed by a special committee.

Unlike the regular service, under which the teachers are liable to get pension, service security, medical insurance etc, they will be given a lump sum amount.

However, so far, the Commission has only directed the AIOU to implement the new decision. In this regard, the AIOU vice- chancellor, Dr Altaf Hussain, recently called a meeting of the faculty heads and informed them about the Commission’s directive.

According to one of the TTS provisions, 10 per cent of the AIOU existing faculty may also switch to the new service structure, however, for this they have to resign from their existing regular services. Subsequently, a three-member committee headed by Dean, Faculty of Education, Dr Mohammad Rashid, was constituted to determine whether or not the TTS was viable for the University.

The committee after considering all view points of the teachers community going through the TTS statutes presented its report within two weeks, terming the programme unsuitable for the faculty.

The committee in its report available with Dawn observed that the pay package offered was also not attractive and sufficient compensation had not been offered in converting from the existing permanent service to the tenured temporary service structure.

The committee also observed that in the absence of medical treatment facility, social security and old-age benefits, the TTS was contrary to the real spirit of the countries where these terms and conditions of service were in practice.

The committee mentioned that there were a number of questions regarding the 10 per cent conversion of the existing faculty. These are: who will be eligible for 10 per cent conversion, which subjects will be included in the proposed scheme, what will be the fate of non-PhDs or lecturers, will these convertees on TTS, be given benefits of previous service i.e pension, commutation, loans and old-age benefits etc.

The TTS also doesn’t talk about the remaining 90 per cent non-convertees, the committee observed, asking, will they be given opportunity for promotion while remaining in the previous system.