In the year since devolution, one silent victim in the shuffle of government departments and ministries has been the Foreign Faculty Programme of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

The latest news is that the Foreign Faculty Hiring Programme (FFHP), one of the most popular and controversial programmes of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, will be shelved by December 2012. The programme’s administration has already informed scholars who were recruited under the FFHP and are teaching in universities all over Pakistanthat their contract will not be extended because of a shortage of funds.

But even after nine years of the programme, no consensus has developed over its usefulness – and the decision to end it has been met with an abnormal silence, as neither its proponents or opponents have risen up to take action on the decision.The Foreign Faculty Hiring Programme, was launched by the HEC in November 2003 to “provide qualified research academics and Ph.D. supervisors in higher education in Pakistan to overcome the shortage of qualified professors to teach higher level courses and supervise PhDs,” explained Murtaza Noor, media coordinator of the HEC.

“The foreign faculty is thus expected to supervise world-class graduate level research and bring cutting-edge research and technology to higher education institutions. The hope was that in the long-term, this would improve the quality of graduate education in Pakistani universities and bring them up to international standards,” he said.

The programme has certainly been dynamic and faced its share of criticism.

By 2012, 594 foreign professors have been hired under the FFHP. Of them 319 were hired for long periods (2 or 4 years), while the rest came under its shorter duration option for a semester or two. Thirteen foreign professors are currently working under the programme and 206 professors have returned to their parent organisations after completing their tenure under FFHP.

In total, 1,500 foreign professors have taught under the programme over the nine years of its duration.

For the HEC, the numbers are evidence of the contribution that the programme has made to higher education and its officials claims that the FFHP has proven instrumental in raising academic and research standards of higher education institutions.

As proof, HEC cites the GovernmentCollegeUniversitys Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences (ASSMS). The school has a number of foreign faculty professors driving it and has produced 38 PhDs. It has a current enrolment of 127 and averages graduation of 20 PhDs a year. Most importantly, it has been recognised internationally for its high standards and original research.

But the HEC also takes credit for the Nust Center of Virology and Immunology that has been set up by the efforts of a foreign faculty professor who only ended up getting mired in controversy over charges of financial mismanagement and plagiarism. Both charges were later sorted out, but such repeated instances show that the programme has had its share of ups and downs and not all, not even most, have been supportive of its operation.

Those who object to the programme raise some fundamental questions on issues of quality and the hiring criteria. Doctor Pervez Hoodbhoy, for example, has been a vocal critic of the programme and has pointed out laxities in HEC’s hiring process and enormous wastage.

Many of the foreign faculty members turned out to be just overseas Pakistanis who were enjoying paid holidays in Pakistan through the programme. Many of the others came from Russia, China or East European countries and did not have a strong enough command on English to teach and inspire, even if they were good researchers.

“A foreign faculty member was appointed in a university at Peshawareven though the university did not even have a department related to his field of specialization. The professor says that he will pass time and leave,” narrated Mr Hoodbhoy as an example of HEC’s flawed selection process.

A lot of scandals that have arisen regarding foreign faculty have also been result of sheer jealousy by local faculty members.

An officer of HEC said: “Local faculty members object that they are no less competent than Foreign Faculty Members (FFM) but still get lower salaries,” and added, “Two foreign faculty professors Dr Nizam and Dr Mukhtar have been promoted to become Vice Chancellors of Universities, so local faculty members also feel that their opportunity to be promoted has been denied.”

Such controversies surrounding the programme have affected its image and put in question the research and PhDs of hundreds of students who worked under the supervision of foreign faculty professors – as well as the local professors who seem resistant of outside efforts to bring up education standards and possibly expose their own incompetence.

This is especially important considering the fact that students approve the programme when asked about it.

Professor Iftikhar Ahmad, a student of PhD confirmed that at least foreign faculty professors seem more dedicated than their local peers:

“Foreign faculty professors give more attention to the students as compared to the more locally experienced professors. Those who come from abroad have much more mental grooming and they never feel jealous of their students,” he said.

But the fact remains that as the programme’s end has been announced, there is hardly any hue or cry about the closure. Perhaps one reason is that there has been no evaluation of the programme or third party findings about the impact of the programme, and its success or failure remains a subjective opinion.

Expert critique has been that the FFHP is good in principle and it is just the implementation that has been the problem.

But given that the programme has been shelved, without debate, like it was implemented for nine years, without much debate, its closure remains an ambiguous and muted controversy as another opportunity to improve higher education standards is lost.