THIS refers to the letter ‘HEC ratings: the KU view’ (April 15) by the Public Relations Officer of the University of Karachi which was in response to my letter published in these columns (April 4).

Of course, one can take consolation watching the general universities category where Karachi University is a distant second in the general university (large) category. But it is also a grim reality that no public sector higher educational institution from Sindh figures in the overall ‘Top 10’ list of the HEC website quoted by the university official, while the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, stands on top in the overall as well as in the general university (others).

On the one hand, the gap between an advertisement and the holding of selection board and, on the other, the large proportion of makeshift, ad hoc, temporary or rehired instructors speaks volumes about the efficiency of the prevalent hiring system.

What criteria are followed in recruiting temporary staff, if and when such posts are advertised remains a mystery. Some of the persons working at other institutions in the city manage to secure these temporary posts just to make quick bucks. They stay at the university for their class only while teaching and research work demand full-time faculty members at the university. Salaries allocated and documented in the account section and bank accounts provide ample evidence about the strength of the ad hoc staff.

The majority (if not all) of temporary staff members after undergoing the tough screening of the selection board coincidentally become permanent. The recommendations of the nominees of the chancellor, vice-chancellor, the dean and two subject specialists should be given more weight than the respective chairpersons to make the process more independent.

The PRO’s statement that 60 teachers were given the Research Productivity Award has corroborated my statement that for the sake of PhD allowance and RPA many researchers are churning out their papers. Therefore, the focus of the research is on quantity, not quality.

That is why in the Times Higher Education Quacquarelli Symonds, the University of Karachi is 8th from the bottom, ranked at +601, rank assigned to seven others placed below Karachi University.

If Karachi University is ranked 138 among 425 top universities of Asia in the Quacquarelli Symonds Asian Universities Rankings 2011, universities of Hong Kong are in the first two slots and several other universities from India, Philippines and one from Pakistan, the National University of Science & Technology, Islamabad (84), ranks higher than Karachi University.

Frequent media reports about ransacking of the administration block, interference in the admission process by political parties’ wings, clashes between rival groups, postponement of examinations and classes, delay in the assessment of answer scripts and delay in the announcement of private examination results are valid evidence of the affairs at the University of Karachi.

Having graduated from the University of Karachi and taught by some of the best scholastic mentors of their times, I still cherish and take pride in the degrees conferred by the University of Karachi.

The views in my letter of April 4 may be due to ‘personal reasons’, as opined by a Karachi University official. But then it hurts to see our once premier institute of higher education slide towards the bottom.

ARIF-UZ-ZAMAN Karachi