LAHORE: All the teaching faculty, provincial higher education departments (HEDs) and universities have jointly rejected the proposed PhD admission policy of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

The reaction came in two-day 36thmeeting of the HEC and its governing body that concluded on Saturday.

HEC Chairman Tariq Banuri chaired the meeting, held online and attended by representatives of provincial higher education departments and vice chancellors of various universities.

The members of the meeting lambasted the HEC chairman for including the PhD new policy in the agenda items without discussing it with any other provincial authorities and universities.However, on receiving strong reaction of all the provinces, especially Punjab, the new PhD admission policy item was removed from the agenda and the matter was deferred, a participant in the meeting told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

He said all the members of the meeting had shown reservations over the new PhD admission policy.

HEC deplores further cut in its budget; demands govt reconsider decision

“The meeting had decided to constitute a committee with all the provincial higher education commissions and departments as its members and they would hold further deliberations on the new policy,” he revealed.

The HEC had proposed the new PhD policy and according to it, a BS degree or equivalent would be the minimum criteria for admission to a PhD programme. Currently, one year Master’s degree after 16 years education is the minimum requirement for direct admission to PhD.

In the new proposed policy, a PhD programme should be completed not earlier than three years and not later than eight years after enrollment. At present, there is no time bar on completion of a PhD.Similarly, the proposed policy said the previous qualification in the same discipline shall not be required for admission to any PhD programme.According to the new proposed policy, PhD scholars are required to complete the coursework spanning over at least two years, or at least 30 credit hours. Currently, course work consists of 18 credit hours.

The commission unanimously deplored the sudden cut in the higher education budget by another Rs5.90bn from the committed indicative budget ceiling of Rs70bn for Financial Year 2020-21.

The members demanded the government to reconsider its decision and take immediate steps to appropriately fund the universities in order to protect access to higher education and its quality.

The commission thoroughly reviewed HEC funding formula for universities and decided the actual total allocation of FY 2019-20 would be treated as base-plus-need grants, accounting for 85pc of the total allocation, while the remaining 15pc will be treated as a performance grant, allocated on the basis of the number of publications, the number and amount of research grants received as well as number of PhD faculty and students.

The commission amended the tenure track statutes by indexing TTS salaries to the comparable BPS scale plus a 35pc TTS premium, thus introducing automatic adjustments of future TTS salaries in line with increases in BPS salary scales. The commission increased the maximum duration for the TTS from the current six years to nine years and endorsed collection of granular data of TTS faculty separately in HEMIS (Higher Education Management Information System) to help universities maintain proper oversight over the progress of TTS faculty, and improve transparency and fairness of recruitment, promotion and tenure.

The source further claimed that the meeting participants had also shown reservation to another agenda item of increasing 20pc salaries of the Tenure Track System (TTS) teachers and also giving them administrative posts in the universities.He said the participants in the meeting had asked HEC chairman Banuri who would pay the proposed increased salaries of the TTS teachers whether it would be the HEC itself or the universities.He further asked how the TTS teachers were recruited for conducting and helping the students in research could be given administrative posts.

The commission appreciated the comprehensive work done in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, to minimise academic disruption, develop and guide universities to acquire online readiness, provide supplementary resources of Rs1.20bn, monitor quality of online delivery, build free online academic content and resources and to motivate students to continue learning.

The commission also approved revised HEC Policy on Protection against Sexual Harassment in Higher Education Institutions 2020, which reflected significant improvement from its 2011 anti-sexual harassment guidelines in terms of enforcement, simplicity, scope, definition of prohibited conduct and consistency with the Protection of Women against Harassment at Workplace Act, and the appellate process.

The commission also adopted the “Safe Campus Acceptable Usage Policy 2020” to protect the privacy of students and avoid possibilities of harassment because of the installation, placement or use of security cameras within the universities and campuses.

The HEC appointed Kamran Rasool, former Interior Secretary and former Chief Secretary Punjab in an honorary capacity as the chairperson of the board of governors of the Education Testing Council (ETC), considering his professional eminence and implacable integrity.

Meanwhile, the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) has also expressed reservations on the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) revised policy of PhD admissions that proposes admission to PhD programmes after a Bachelor’s degree.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2020