LAHORE: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is planning to introduce public-private partnership (P3) campuses taking a plea that the government alone is unable to provide space for ever-growing population of students.

The P3 campus of a university will be opened and operated in partnership with private societies, trusts or foundations after fulfilling a certain criteria.

The HEC Accreditation & Attestation (A&A) Division announced that the commission had prepared guidelines that were circulated to vice chancellors and rectors of all public universities for their comments within 15 days on opening of P3 campuses. It said the guidelines never existed earlier at the commission.

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Sources in the commission claimed the guidelines were circulated without presenting them to the HEC Vice Chancellors Committee. They claimed many VCs expressed reservations and some surprise over the division’s abrupt move of circulating the guidelines about such an important issue without holding a debate on it in the commission’s relevant bodies.

P3 campus will be operated in partnership with private societies, trusts or foundations

A VC said universities reputed for managing affairs of their affiliated institutions for at least five years should be allowed to enter into public-private partnerships. Many VCs had not responded despite the lapse of time limit.

The P3 campuses guidelines circulated by HEC A&A Division Director General Muhammad Raza Chohan carried a draft agreement explaining the concept’s definition, preamble, resolution, description, legal formalities, procedure of application, requirements and conditions, constitutional and cultural conditions, termination of contract, financial model, board of management functions, contents of partnership deed agreement, retrieval of cost and other expenditures as well as a Saving Clause.

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According to the Saving Clause, anything done by a public university in the interest of the nation would be covered under this policy provided that they were not inconsistent or contrary to any existing rule of law.

The financial model suggested in the guidelines stated the parent university would operate and manage the financial matters and profit be

shared with the private partner. It presented a Rs100 million financial model comprising at least Rs25 million as endowment fund, at least Rs50 million of tangible assets and at least Rs25 million for running expenditures in the name of a P3 campus.

When contacted, former HEC VCs Committee chairman Imtiaz Hussain Gilani said he had also received the draft guidelines but did not know the background.

“This draft was not shared with the committee for discussion and instead circulated to all VCs and rectors prematurely,” he claimed.

Gilani stressed that the idea of the P3 campuses should have been discussed in the HEC Executive Board as well as at the VCs Committee to develop a collective wisdom.

“Even good ideas fail to derive expected results when the bodies concerned are not taken into confidence and abrupt action is taken,” he commented. “The HEC must carefully debate this issue internally and identify its pros and cons before going to the public.”

He said private colleges affiliated with respective varsities were an aspect of the public-private partnership but never partners in income, profit or loss. In the P3 campuses varsities would become a part of their businesses, he added.

A senior HEC official also said the commission’s 17-member Executive Board that had representation of all provincial governments and VCs should not be used as a rubber stamp. He said all policy matters must be presented before the board as per the HEC Act.

He also claimed the A&A Division sent the draft directly to the VCs and did not even consult provincial governments and their higher education departments.

Meanwhile, senior academics also reacted against the division’s move, saying the involvement of private sector at a massive scale would not only make higher education costly but also lower the quality of education substantially. They said the involvement of huge finances could also lead to corruption.

Chohan said the P3 draft guidelines were prepared by a national committee comprising VCs and was sent to all the VCs in the country for their views. Responding to the VCs’ reservations, he said the HEC would present these guidelines to the commission’s VCs Committee before taking a decision.

Admitting VCs’ reservations about the ‘heavy’ financial model, Chohan said it was suggested to strengthen the financial health of public universities. He also said the P3 campuses guidelines would help identify and rectify gaps and provide a way forward to enter into the partnership. He said public universities would venture with the private sector and control P3 campuses through syndicates.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014