PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa higher education department has decided to relax the recently-framed criteria for the appointment of vice chancellors to public sector universities in the province over the objection of educationists, who consider it very strict.

According to the officials in the know, the relaxation will be made mainly in the publication of research papers in the journals recognised by the Higher Education Commission by reducing its number from the existing 40 to 25.

They said educationists and other stakeholders had expressed concerns about the strict criteria at various forums saying it was rarely fulfilled by academicians in the province.

Officials say criteria too strict to be fulfilled by academicians in province

The officials said the important points in the criteria incorporated in the law introduced few months ago by the provincial government for the appointment of a vice chancellor was that the candidate would have the minimum 40 research publications in the peer-reviewed international research journals with impact factors of above 1.0 in the case of candidates in the fields of agriculture, science or engineering.

They said besides reducing the number of existing criteria of 40 research publications to 25, the condition of impact factors of above 1.0 would also be abolished through amendments proposed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act, 2012.

The officials said the higher education department had sent the proposed amendments to the law department for vetting.

They said major amendments regarding the VC appointment were incorporated in the law few months ago for bringing academic and financial reforms in public sector universities by appointing competent people.

The officials said most universities in the province had been facing financial crisis due to mismanagement and administrative irregularities.

They said with the introduction of tough criteria for VC appointment, the number of aspirants for the posts of the vice chancellor of public sector universities had been reduced considerably as every academician was not fulfilling the criteria.

The officials said it was witnessed in the ongoing process of appointment of VCs to Hazara University Mansehra and Kohat University of Science and Technology.

They said only 70 people applied recently for the two vacant posts.

They said keeping in view the current criteria, half of the 70 applicants was likely to be listed out of the race for the vice chancellorship in initial scrutiny as they didn’t fulfil the criteria.

The officials said prior to the introduction of the existing criteria, the number of applicants was much higher.

“In some instances, the number of applicants for a single post had crossed the 200 mark,” an official said.

Before major amendments to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act, 2012, only few lines were mentioned in the law about the qualification of VCs as it states, “there shall be a Vice-Chancellor of the University who shall be an eminent academician, a distinguished administrator or a former public office-holder and shall be appointed on such terms and conditions as may be prescribed.”

The officials said rest of the criteria for the VC appointment was framed time to time by the government but it was never made part of the law.

A senior academician at the University of Peshawar told Dawn that the publication of the minimum of 40 research publication was possible and many had done but the impact factor of above 1.0 was very rare.

He said achieving the impact factors above 1.0 was possible in physics, chemistry, mathematics etc but professors of social sciences, medical and engineering would hardly fulfil the criteria as it was very difficult to have impact factor above 1.0 in such subjects.

Published in Dawn September 12th, 2015

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