October 27, 2003	Monday	Sha’aban 30, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, Oct 26: Despite serious concern shown by the local faculty of the public sector universities, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has launched its foreign faculty hiring scheme.

In a statement, the HEC said till date it had received around 100 applications, which would be processed by a review committee. In this regard, Pakistani high commissions and embassies would also be involved, it added.

Pakistan has an extremely low number of highly-qualified academics and researchers who can pull up the education level to the world standards.

“Therefore, to cope with the critical shortage of qualified faculty and provide quality education to students of bachelors, masters and PhD programmes, the HEC has launched a foreign faculty hiring programme through which teachers from abroad will be deputed in the accredited degree-awarding institutions throughout the country.”

This was stated by Prof Dr Attaur Rahman, chairman of the HEC, while presiding over the first management committee meeting of the programme on the HEC campus.

“The nature of the programme is such that it is not likely to have an adverse impact on the academic environment,” he added.

On the contrary, Dr Ata said, the project would improve the education level and hence the socio-economic status of a major group of the population.

The meeting was informed that under the programme 300 foreign faculty members would be hired per year to serve in the public sector universities.

These faculty members, preferably Pakistani expatriates, would be required to have PhD degree and excellent communication skill as well as distinguished teaching and research records.

The committee proposed that only those foreign faculty members should be inducted in the programme who possessed a level of qualification or expertise less likely to be matched by the local teachers.

In addition, the timeframe of the programme proposed is such that it would ensure maximum coordination with the indigenous PhD programme, recently initiated by the HEC.

The visiting academics will educate and train the newly- inducted scholars under the programme, generating a new base of educators trained to international standards, the HEC chairman maintained.

The committee after a review will shortlist the candidates and will invite them to serve at the relevant public sector universities.

The HEC intends to implement the preliminary phase of the project at the earliest so that the foreign faculty members may be placed in universities for the 2004 autumn semester, said the statement. It was also decided that the details of the programme should be disseminated through the international press, research journals and known academic papers.

On the other hand, the existing faculty of the public sector universities are of the view that the commission should evolve such a strategy whereby teachers should be awarded on the basis of their credentials.

Dr Aslam Baig, chairman of the physics department at the Quaid-i-Azam University, told Dawn that applicants who were forwarding their applications to the QAU for induction under the programme had lesser research experience than the existing academics on the campus.

He said those who would be inducted under the new plan would be given huge salary packages — at least Rs100,000 a month — creating a disparity in the salary structures.