KARACHI, Aug 20: The financial position of the NED University of Engineering and Technology is alarming and it desperately needs a bailout package to meet its financial liabilities worth Rs1.3 billion, said vice chancellor Prof Dr M. Afzal Haque during his speech delivered at the 21st meeting of the university’s senate on Tuesday.

He also said that the university might raise its tuition fee by 20pc and also increase the number of seats, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in the next financial year to improve university’s weak financial status.

Speaking to the audience comprising faculty members and journalists, in the absence of Sindh governor Dr Ishratul Ibad who couldn’t make it to the programme, Prof Haque said that the financial position of the university was precarious when he took over four months ago. “The university had accumulated gross liabilities of more than Rs1.5bn since 2007-08. The amount included Rs764.9m of bank loans and Rs341m of in terms of unpaid bills,” he said.

He said that though the Sindh government had recently provided a special grant of Rs250m, as of June 30 the financial position of the varsity still remained distressing. “The university has now accumulated gross liabilities of Rs1.3bn that include Rs562m as bank loans, Rs380m as internal loans and Rs360m of current liabilities of unpaid bills,” he said, adding that the fiscal year 2012-13 would be termed as the most challenging year in the recent history of the university.

The situation, said Prof Haque, couldn’t be contained in the forthcoming year and would continue to threaten the university’s survival as grants given by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and internal income together could hardly meet the expenses related to employees’ salaries and pensions.

He urged the Sindh government to come forward and help the university which was dire straits. “The only recourse available is hope from the Sindh government,” he said. “The university essentially needs a bailout package of Rs1.3bn and then a special annual recurring grant of Rs500m, at least for the next five years, to meet the monthly deficits.”

Prof Haque announced what he called ‘painful decisions’ to curtail university expenses. Tey included freezing of salaries, postponement of allowances and adoption of no-appointment policy in the non-teaching cadre.

He asked both teaching and non-teaching staff of the university to take strategic actions to sustain their operations.

Meanwhile, highlighting key performance indicators of the university during the past year, the vice chancellor said that the teaching faculty contributed 101 publications in international journals and the varsity itself held various programmes in which foreign experts were invited. He said that more than 1,000 thousand students were awarded scholarships of over Rs17m from 59 sponsors and around 1,881 students were helped to work as interns in 509 organisations.

“With its expanded role, the Directorate of Industrial Liaison has recently embarked on product and process studies for six industrial units in Karachi,” he said. “A new PC-1 of Rs891m is being pursued for development of three new departments for food, earthquake and optical engineering.”

During the year 2012-13, added Prof Haque, expenditures amounting to Rs174.9m were made for strengthening physical infrastructure of the university.

Earlier, members of the senate approved the university budget, minutes of the last senate meeting, report on actions taken on the minutes of the last meeting, annual statement of accounts of 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.

Presenting the details of the recurring budget of 2013-14, acting director finance Mr Abdul Wahab said that the total income estimated for 2013-14 stood at Rs1293m while the expenditure was Rs1791.3m, including Rs434.7m from internal sources and an expected HEC grant of Rs1020.5m.

“That means the deficit stands at 498.2m,” said Mr Wahab. “During the last fiscal year the deficit stood at Rs522m.”

Giving a presentation on the annual report 2012-13, the dean of Chemical Process Engineering Dr Tufail Mohammad said that the university was spending Rs154,100 per graduate while 1,717 and 308 students had passed out in the bachelor’s and master’s programmes in year 2012-13 respectively.