LAHORE, Jan 9: There has been a controversy over the implementation of the Higher Education Commission’s Tenure Track System on the Punjab University teaching faculty.

The varsity administration claims that the TTS had been approved in principal by the syndicate in its meeting held in December last while the Academic Staff Association (ASA), a teachers’ representative body, disputes it saying that the syndicate had only appreciated the modified draft of the TTS prepared by the deans committee.

A syndicate member said on Monday the syndicate had asked the administration to distribute the copies of the modified draft among teachers for a feedback in the next Academic Staff Associ-ation’s general body meeting.

He said the administration was under pressure from the HEC to implement it that was why it had tried to give an impression that the TTS had been approved finally.

It may, however, be mentioned that the PU teaching faculty had rejected the HEC’s TTS three times outrightly during the last three years owing to what they called it a “tenure trap”.

Seeing a major resistance in the PU and some other varsities, the HEC had authorized them to modify the draft according to the demand of teaching faculty. However, it had also warned of withdrawing the funds of the institutions for failing to adopt it.

The new modified draft, the syndicate member said was teacher-friendly, offering better package as compared to the one offered in the previous drafts.

“The new draft offers job protection. It allows the teaching faculty to return to previous pay scale during the four-year contract under the TTS. If a teacher fails to come up to the standard of the TTS after the completion of the contract, he or she can return to the previous pay scale as well. Besides, the new draft is offering a lucrative salary package, entitling a professor to draw up to Rs1750,000 on meeting the eligibility criteria,” he explained.

He said it was the first time some syndicate members pleaded for its adoption. He said most of the senior teachers were in favour of adopting the revised TTS because it benefited them more than that of the teachers who were in the beginning or mid of career. The Government College University, Lahore College for Women University, Bahauddin Zakrayia University Multan and the University of Education have already adopted the HEC’s TTS.

Recently, some 27 UET professors have availed the TTS under the revised draft, however, the others are reluctant as they believe that it would jeopardize their career if they fail to be selected for award of a tenure after the specified period. — Zulqernain Tahir