PESHAWAR: At a time when almost all public universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are teetering on the brink of collapse due to financial crisis and low enrolment rates, the provincial government is moving ahead with plans to establish two more institutions of higher learning in the province.

Currently, KP, with a population over 40 million, has 34 government universities. Punjab has the same number of public universities for its 127 million population, which is three times more than KP’s.

KP Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi recently directed the higher education department to work on the proposal of establishing the Arshad Sharif University in the province as well as another varsity in his native Khyber tribal district.

The directives generated a debate among academia and the higher education department regarding why the government is going to set up more varsities instead of strengthening the existing ones, which are strapped for cash.

Most varsities struggle to pay current, former staff members, say officials

Official at the higher education department told Dawn that five oldest universities in the province, including University of Peshawar, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar, Agriculture University Peshawar, Islamia College University Peshawar and Gomal University Dera Ismail Khan, were unable to pay salaries to their employees and pension to former staff members.

They also claimed that financial crisis was likely to hit the University of Science and Technology Bannu, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University Peshawar, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, University of Swat, University of Chitral, University of Buner, University of Sheringal, University of Shangla, Agriculture University Dera Ismail Khan within the next few months.

An official wondered, “Right now when the KP government is unable to smoothly run several decades-old varsities, what is the rationale for setting up new ones and what future will lie ahead for them.”

A senior government official told Dawn a degree college at district level required to have a student strength of 3,000, whereas several of those universities had a few hundred students enrolled in them.

Dawn has learnt that the University of Engineering and Applied Sciences Swat has 184 students enrolled in several BS programmes and 24 in MS courses but regular faculty members totalled five, including an assistant professor and four lecturers.

Similarly, student enrolment is 210 at University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Swat, 353 at University of Agriculture Swat, 515 at University of Technology Nowshera, 744 at University of Fata, 1,165 at University of Chitral, 1,260 at University of Lakki Marwat and 1,800 at Khushal Khan Khattak University Karak.

Recently, University of Peshawar closed down nine disciplines over low admission rate in the respective Bachelor of Studies (BS) programmes.

The courses include development studies, geography, geology, history, social anthropology, statistics, logistics and supply chain analytics, human development and family studies and home economics, according to official documents.

Several public universities, including UoP, haven’t finished the admission process for fall semester due to poor response of potential students, forcing these universities to advertise their admission programme time and again, according to a teacher. He said that the UoP had advertised its admission programme three times but still the required enrolments were missing.

Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) KP president Dr Dilnawaz Khan told Dawn that currently, 34 public sector universities had been functioning in the province but unfortunately, all of them were facing financial issues, which had hit salary payment to employees.

He said that old universities in KP were facing more problems.

“Certain universities have opened irrelevant disciplines aiming to collect fees from students and manage their affairs,” he said, adding that majority of universities face the enrolment issue.

Dr Khan said besides the provincial government, the Higher Education Commission was also responsible for the mushroom growth of universities in the province as without the latter’s approval, institutions of higher education couldn’t be opened. He said currently, universities were focusing on arranging salaries and pensions for employees, while there were no funds for research, their prime responsibility

“Other than white boards and a marker, no electronic gadgets, which are very useful in teaching, can be seen inside university classrooms,” he said, adding that no university was working on research development.

Peshawar University Teachers Association president Dr Zakirullah told Dawn that employees of the University of Peshawar observed a week long strike in September due to the inability to pay salaries and pension. He said that the former employees of UoP got pensions three weeks late in the month of October.

“The next two months will be tough for the university administration to pay salaries and pension as it is short of funds,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2025