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| September 20, 2005 | Tuesday | Sha'aban 15, 1426 |
University teachers’ federation questions HEC mandate
PESHAWAR, Sept 19: The Federation of All-Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa) has said that it is opposed to growing involvement of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in the management of local universities.
“Universities should be autonomous and their autonomy should be constitutionally protected. The HEC has no mandate to interfere in their working,” representatives from the Fapuasa general body told newsmen on Sunday.
The briefing was given following a three-day meeting of the general body of Fapuasa in the Puta hall of the University of Peshawar. Among the topics discussed were the role of the HEC, the tenure track system, new criteria for recruitment and other issues concerning the teaching faculty of universities.
The federation condemned the interference of the HEC in universities’ management and advised it to focus only on facilitating universities and promoting higher education in the country. “The HEC should play its role to raise the education and research standards of the universities in the country,” it said.
The federation also rejected the fresh criteria proposed by the HEC and demanded that the commission should desist from threatening and pressurising universities to adopt the new criteria. The federation urged the universities to advertise positions in accordance with the already approved eligibility criteria.
The general body also showed its concern over the level of competence of the foreign faculty hired by the HEC. While evaluating the credentials of the foreign faculty, it should be made mandatory that the hired foreign faculty members must have produced at least three PhDs during his or her career abroad and must have 20 publications in the HEC’s journals.
No foreign faculty should be hired just on the basis of teaching experience or publications, the federation said.
It also condemned the “illegal and arbitrary action of the vice-chancellor” to cancel the PhD degrees of six professors of Shah Abdul Latif University in Khairpur. The federation maintained that the concerned teachers had fulfilled all the requirements of the university regulation regarding M.Phil/PhD.
“The cancellation of degrees by the vice-chancellor without approval of the statutory bodies of the university is immoral and unethical,” the federation observed.
The federation’s Sindh chapter expressed concern over the appointment of retired government functionaries as vice chancellors and against other administrative posts.
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