KARACHI: Teachers of the Federal Urdu University for Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast) have urged the prime minister to take notice of growing irregularities at the university that, among other things, desperately needs provision of state-of-the-art facilities.

The demand has been made in a report recently submitted to a committee, which recently visited the Gulshan-i-Iqbal campus of the university. The committee headed by MNA Choudhary Hamid Hameed has been set up by the prime minister on higher education.

According to the report, the vice chancellor often acts unilaterally and gives approval to important administrative and academic issues without taking consent of the syndicate and academic council, which is mandatory under the university rules and regulations.The university vice chancellor, the teachers said, should be bound to seek approval for all academic, financial and administrative matters from the institution’s statutory bodies, as per university ordinance.

“We also demand action against all employees that are found involved in corrupt practices so that the institution could be run in a transparent manner. Under the university charter, the vice chancellor is required to present an annual report based on academic, research, administrative and financial matters in the senate. But, this hasn’t been done so far.

“Second, the university administration is bound to provide a copy of the report to all teachers so everyone knows how the university is being run,” the report says.

Another important matter raised in the report was related to the appointment of retired contractual employees, which, according to the report, is a major reason for malpractices at the university.

“Some key posts currently headed by retired contractual employees include the registrar, treasurer, controller of examinations of Karachi campuses and the in-charge of campus, additional registrar and dean of engineering of the Islamabad campus. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) should take notice of this anomaly,” the report adds.

“These posts should be filled through a selection board for three years under the university charter.”

The teachers also expressed concern over the delay in their promotions in the report and urged the HEC to get involved in the scrutiny process in order to bring transparency in affairs.

Highlighting the poor state of the three campuses (one in Islamabad, second in Gulshan and third in Saddar) which lack state-of-the-art laboratories and sport facilities, teachers have made an appeal to the prime minister that the federal government build/renovate university campuses as per modern requirements.

“This is direly needed in Karachi. We expect that as the federal government has allocated 500 acres land to private and public sector universities on the Superhighway, it should demonstrate similar gestures in case of the Urdu university.”

The report recommends various measures to improve selection process of the vice chancellor and run the university smoothly. For instance, it says that the vice chancellor search committee should be bound to select the relevant person for the post in two months while it should look into the academic career of the candidate, his performance and role in the development of an institution as well as efficiency in administrative and financial matters.

It also suggests that the HEC fix separate funds for each department and do carry out monitoring of funds’ utilisation.