ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has finalized a list of 30 teachers who would be hired under its Foreign Faculty Hiring Programme (FFHP), said an official statement.

The Commission has selected 30 teachers from reputed foreign institutions to serve in public sector universities of Pakistan, it added.

These teachers would be teaching in electrical engineering, mechanical/material engineering, computer science, satellite communication, computer engineering, automation and robotics, information in computer sciences, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, petroleum engineering, electronics engineering, neural networks, engineering material, civil engineering, entomology, plant molecular genetics, plant breeding, molecular plants virology, organic chemistry, mathematics, physics, operation research and condensed matter physics.

It is to note that the goal of this programme is to hire 300 foreign faculty members each year for the next 5 years to fill the vast gap of qualified research academics and PhD supervisors in the higher education sector in Pakistan, said the statement.

Furthermore, the project would generate the linkages between the local and foreign institutions, encouraging long-term sustainable scientific collaborations. In the long-term, the goal is to uplift the graduate programmes in the Pakistani universities and bring them up to the international standards.

The Commission has initiated this programme after a peer review in detail so that the first batch of foreign faculty members might be hired to join the universities as soon as possible.

It is worth-mentioning here that since the introduction of the FFHP, there is resentment among the faculty of the public sector universities, as with this programme, two sets of service structures would be in place, one for local teachers and another for teachers hired from abroad.

Talking to this reporter Dr Aslam Baig, Chairperson Physics Department of the Quaid-i-Azam University, said instead of improving academic standards, the FFHP would impact upon the existing faculty of the public sector universities.

“I have already pointed out some of the HEC’s nominations, who have lesser research experience as well as academic qualifications than our existing faculty,” Dr Baig said. This would only create a sense of deprivation among the local teachers because under the scheme the foreign teachers are being hired on hefty salary packages, he added.

Interestingly, Pakistani expatriates working in any foreign university anywhere in the world were allowed to apply under the scheme. “I am not against the scheme, but it should be well- thought-out and if a local teacher has comparable credentials to those of selected ones he should be offered the same service conditions,” Dr Baig argued.

A number of universities have already rejected the Programme, Dr Baig said, adding “in its present form it will fail to deliver”. The Commission is taking a number of initiatives to improve education standards in the public sector universities but in a haphazard manner.

Just imagine, at present there are three sets of service structures in a public sector university, one for regular teachers, one for Tenure Track System and another for the FFHP.

“It will take us nowhere but to further deterioration of education in the public sector universities,” he said.