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• Under proposal, VCs will lose chairmanship of syndicates, which will be headed by CM or minister
• Conference discusses varsities’ autonomy, other issues
LAHORE: Vice chancellors of different public sector universities on Monday expressed concerns over some proposals of the Punjab government, claiming that under the amended laws the role of academia in the governance of varsities will be curtailed while the control of executives enhanced.
The vice chancellors were asked to present recommendations at a conference jointly hosted by the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) and Higher Education Department (HED).
The conference was aimed to address key issues of governance, academic quality, financial management and curriculum alignment with national requirements.
However, some vice chancellors while talking to Dawn claimed that their recommendations, mainly pertaining to the issue of the universities’ autonomy, were ignored by the department and an entirely different set of proposals was presented to Punjab Minister for School and Higher Education Rana Sikandar Hayat.
HED Secretary Dr Farrukh Naveed told Dawn that the recommendations were at an initial stage and claimed that not all VCs were against the department’s point of view on the matter of autonomy. He also defended the government’s proposed role in the governance of universities, saying there must be a third party check to ensure quality.
The conference was attended by 32 VCs while prominent business leaders, members of the VC Search Committee, and senior officials from HED and PHEC were also present.
NUST founding rector retired Lt Gen Muhammad Asghar and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited’s BOD Chairman Muhammad Ismail Qureshi and educationist Sohail Naqvi in their speeches discussed different problems facing the universities.
They said universities should be given complete autonomy in all matters and training programmes should be launched to improve administration. They suggested appointing regular registrars and controller of examinations and starting quality enhancing centres on the campuses. They proposed that teachers should not be made heads of such centres.
The speakers said that VCs should head syndicates while registrar should serve as their secretary. Senates and board of governors (BoG) should be increased, they said, adding that members from the business community, eminent scholars, industry leaders and philanthropists should be included in it.
VCs’ proposals
The conference had developed groups of VCs to obtain recommendations to address issues of governance, academic quality, financial management and curriculum alignment with national requirements.
The VCs presented several recommendations, including providing autonomy to universities to run its affairs and oversee funds. They suggested that the government should amend the acts of those universities where there is no Senate.
The said the government should develop a Senate in universities including all women universities, Okara, Layyah, Sialkot, Gujrat, Faisalabad, Ghazi, Bhakkar, and others and make the chief minister or minister for higher education its chairman.
It may be recalled that under the 1973 Universities Act, the governor is the chancellor as well as the head of the Senate. However, new recommendations made at the moot suggest that the chief minister or the minister for higher education should be made the chancellor.
They proposed that the government should give syndicate chairmanship to the VCs rather than giving it to the minister in the new universities and also complete other bodies of these campuses.
However, a senior official while talking to Dawn on condition of anonymity said the government was planning to amend laws of all the universities of the province.
The conference proposed amendments to several sections of laws. The recommendations include changing the Universities Acts and making the chief minister, minister of higher education and HED secretary as head of the Syndicates and removing the VCs from chairmanship. The CM will head the Syndicate and in its absence minister for higher education or HED secretary would head it.
Several VCs on condition of anonymity told Dawn that the government was trying to end all types of autonomy of the universities by trying to change the law.
A source said that teachers would resist any such move and would not allow ending the universities’ autonomy.
The source apprehended that the government would try to approve the recommendations in the PHEC meeting on Tuesday (today).
According to the source, all the VCs rejected the recommendations made at the conference and their opinion was presented to the minister.
Minister’s call
Earlier, Punjab Minister for School and Higher Education Rana Sikandar Hayat in his address said that VCs would be removed from chairmanship of the Syndicates which should be given to third party for their evaluation in running the universities’ affairs. He emphasised that public-private partnerships, international grants, and endowment funds are being encouraged to enhance the financial sustainability of varsities.
Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2025
