PESHAWAR: The process for appointment of vice-chancellors to nine public sector universities has entered its final stage as the academic search committee has recommended a panel of three candidates for each university, according to sources.

They said that the academic search committee recommended a total of 27 candidates three each for a single university.

Former federal minister for science and technology Dr Attaur Rehman is chairman of the academic search committee while its members include former governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr Ishrat Hussain, Rector of Ripha University Dr GM Miana, Lahore University of Management Sciences Vice-chancellor Dr Sohail Naqvi and the secretary of higher education department.

The higher education department, which assists the committee in the appointment of vice-chancellors, would forward a summary of the proposed panel of candidates for each university to the chief minister.

The governor, who is chancellor of public sector universities in the province, would appoint one of three candidates as vice-chancellor on the advice of chief minister.

Search committee recommends 27 candidates, three each for a university

The process for appointment of vice-chancellors of nine public sector universities was carried out under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act, 2012 in which drastic changes were made through an ordinance in different provisions.

The ordinance was promulgated on February 9 and its constitutional life was 90 day, however, the assembly extended it for further period of 90 days. The bill is still pending in the assembly.

The provincial government couldn’t pass the bill as the opposition parties had reservation over the amendments introduced through the ordinance.

The posts of vice-chancellors are lying vacant at five old and four new universities. The old universities include Islamia College University Peshawar, Gomal University Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat University of Science and Technology, Hazara University Mansehra and University of Science and Technology Peshawar.

The newly established universities by the provincial government are Women University Swabi, Abbottabad University of Science and Technology, Women University Mardan and Shuhada-i-Army Public School University of Technology Nowshera.

The process for appointment of vice-chancellors was commenced in March. Sources said that 230 academicians had submitted over 800 applications for the vacant posts of vice-chancellors. Majority of the candidates had applied for several universities.

Many candidates had shown more interest in the vice-chancellorship of the old universities as the HED had received over a hundred of applications for each university, sources said.

They said that 109 candidates were considered for onward process in the initial screening conducted in March while the remaining were not fulfilling the prescribed criteria.

Of them 64 were called for interview by the search committee and 27 were recommended in the final list three each for a single university, sources said,

Regarding the criteria for the appointment of vice-chancellors, the law states that a vice-chancellor for the general universities shall be a PhD in any discipline with good academic record. For an engineering university, PhD in the field of engineering and for technology university PhD in a field of technology was must.

“He (vice-chancellor) must have experience in the field of higher education of at least 15 years in teaching or research in a university/well-established institution of repute at the postgraduate level,” the law states.

Similarly, the vice-chancellor shall also have excellent research publication record. Under the criteria, the vice-chancellor is required to have at least five years of administrative/postdoctoral research experience in the field of higher education.

The existing criteria for the appointment of vice-chancellors was relaxed by introducing major amendments in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act, 2012 through an ordinance promulgated on February 9, 2016 as the previous criteria established by the PTI-led provincial government under its reform agenda were hardly fulfilled by any candidate.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2016