July 22, 2006	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 25, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, July 21: The Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) is busy finalising nitty gritties of the Tenure Track System (TTS), a new service structure with hefty salary packages.

Talking to Dawn, the university Academic Staff Association (ASA) president, Dr Mohammad Ishaq, said the final modalities of the TTS were being finalised, and it was expected to be implemented after summer vacations.

So far, over 30 universities have accepted the new form of service structure, under which a teacher can get monthly salary up to Rs175,000.

The TTS, a brainchild of Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr Attaur Rehman, has been introduced to improve upon the teaching standards in the public sector universities.

Responding to a question, Dr Ishaq said: “Unlike other universities, we wanted to shape it (TTS) according to our own needs, and the HEC has agreed to implement it according to the university’s peculiar requirement.”

To another question, he said the university had kept a special provision for reverting to the regular service structure in case the teachers did not feel comfortable with the new system.

He said associate professors and professors, before switching over to the TTS, would be assessed by the foreign teachers, but assistant professors will be adjudged locally.

Since, most of the QAU teachers are doing research and qualify for the new service structure, it is expected that majority of them would be able to avail themselves of the opportunity.

Compared to the QAU teaching standards, less qualified faculty at various universities in the public sector is enjoying encouraging pay structures, some under the TTS and other under Foreign Faculty Hiring Programme, a senior teacher said while talking to Dawn.

But the QAU faculty was kept busy in negotiations with the HEC to sort out whether the TTS was acceptable to the university or not and “we have lost a lot of time in it,” the teacher said.

And if this time the university fails to implement the TTS, a number of teachers might leave for better service structure in the private sector.

It’s is worth mentioning here that over the last three-four years, the QAU has lost some really good teachers to the private sector universities.