April 17, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 28, 1428

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PESHAWAR, April 16: With more and more academicians leaving for foreign countries in pursuit of higher studies, two of Peshawar’s three main universities are finding it difficult to get their replacements.

Shortage of PhD scholars at the University of Peshawar and University of Engineering and Technology (UET) is adversely affecting work for the researchers.

Information gathered about the existing strength of faculty members showed that 37 departments of the University of Peshawar had 368 teachers, including 135 PhDs.

However, at present only 112 teachers holding PhDs are working, whereas 21 are on long leave, most of whom either working abroad or in other local institutions on higher wages.

Four campuses of the UET in Peshawar, Mardan, Abbottabad and Bannu districts face a similar situation.

There are 250 teachers in 13 departments of the university, of which only 25 are PhDs, a number far less than the requirement.

The university needs 75 PhDs to cater for the needs of the students.

Source said that at present 70 people from the country’s universities were doing PhD in UK, Thailand, Canada, USA, Germany and South Korea on scholarships.

An official source said that to minimize the dropout ratio, the government had launched a “Tenure Track” system through which the government appoints professors on a three-year deputation period.

On completion of this tenure, they are given three-year probation period after which they are employed as regular professors.

The attraction in this system is that those who avail this opportunity are paid a handsome monthly package of Rs100,000, the sources maintained.

Peshawar University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) president Prof Shafiq Ur Rehman criticised the situation.

He said that the Higher Education Commission was providing scholarships for studying abroad, but unfortunately, most of the scholarship recipients did not return after the completion of course.

“During the past four to five years, about 1,500 students were sent by the government on scholarships, but 60 per cent of them did not return,” said Dr Shafiq.

To overcome this problem, the government started a “split” or “sandwich” system through which the students were required to take admission in a local university and awarded scholarships for overseas study in the middle of their studies, he said.

Interestingly, he said these students were required to get back to the country in order to take degree from the institutes from which they had gone abroad, adding the system of providing higher education will take time to improve.

He said the services of most of the PhDs often went unacknowledged locally that discouraged them.

Mr Shafiq said that 13 PhD teachers were expected to retire in 2008, further causing shortage of highly-qualified faculty in the university.

He suggested that the money that the government was spending on awarding scholarships should be utilized for capacity building of the existing institutions.