03 November 2004	Wednesday	19 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Nov 2: The chartered educational institutions in the private sector in the province are catering mainly to the elite class, the charter inspection and evaluation committee of the Sindh education department had observed.

The fee structure varied from institution to institution and in some cases appeared to be too high, a report prepared by the committee said.

The institutions' support to 10 per cent deserving students on need-cum-merit basis required under the government's guidelines was not properly met and the number of beneficiaries, the amount and the mode of allocation for the purpose varied, it said.

A former vice-chancellor of the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Dr S.M. Qureshi, is the committee's chairman and the vice-chancellors of the University of Karachi and the University of Sindh and two officials from the education department and the Higher Education Commission are its members.

The report based on the first round of visits and inspection of 18 universities and degree awarding institutions over 14 months said many of the sponsoring trusts and foundations of the institutions were by and large business oriented. It said many institutions had been established by owners of business concerns, who made their kin chairmen of the boards of governors, chancellors or appointed them to other high offices. As such, the sanctity of the institutions had been reduced, it said.

The academic and administrative heads of the institutions were not properly qualified and selected, it said.

This had produced an adverse influence on the academic performance of the institutions, the report said.

It said that the physical facilities at a majority of the institutions were not developed for the purpose.

The owners had rented a number of buildings in the cities and given different names to the campuses, it observed.

The requirements for a faculty office for a department were being abused by some institutions by providing a small room to accommodate two or three small tables and a few chairs. The requirements could be more specific, it was observed.

Most of the institutions did not designate their teachers as professors, associate professors, etc, and in many cases, they had managed that their charters did not provide for that, the report said. Hence, they did not stick to the appointment of minimum required permanent faculty according to the government's guidelines and the minimum requirements of qualifications and experience as laid down by the Higher Education Commission and practised by the public sector universities, it said.

The committee observed that any institution calling itself a university should have recognized facilities of teaching, research and extension.

Many of the chartered institutions had adopted varying admission, examination and recruitment criteria, which affected the quality of education, it said. It also pointed out varying fee structures, staff salaries and utilization of savings.

The committee had prepared two questionnaires for the monitoring, evaluation and grading of the universities and degree awarding institutions chartered during the last 10 years.

In its recommendations, which have been presented to the Sindh governor recently, the committee says the fee structures of the chartered institutions must be rationalized and any change allowed by a designated authority.

To maintain sanctity of the institutions and promote ethical values and quality of education, eminent persons should be appointed chancellors and if they are not available among the sponsors or those proposed by them, other suitable prominent persons of the society should be appointed, it said.

The institutions which had acquired land for their permanent campuses should be asked to shift there within a specified period and develop themselves as provided in their charters, it said.

It said the institutions should be directed to improve their environment and quickly develop more accommodation for different facilities within a specified period, it recommended.

It said the facility of affiliation should be withdrawn from the institutions in the private sector.

The institutions considered for grant of charter should be required to affiliate themselves with public sector universities concerned or collaborate with any accredited foreign institution, it said.

The committee has finalized a grading of the private institutions, under which five of those are rated as four-star, seven as three-star, four as two-star and two without any star.