LAHORE, May 2: The Punjab University has recruited first professor under the Tenure Track System (TTS), offering him a lumpsum salary of Rs160,000 per month.

Prof Dr Naeem Akhtar has been recruited for a three-year term by the Board of Governors of the School of Biological Sciences (SBS), PU, after assessing foreign referees’ reports about his research work on Wednesday.

Prof Akhtar, who earned a PhD degree in bio-technology from Japan, had been serving the SBS for the last couple of years as the Higher Education Commission’s foreign faculty member. He had opted for the post under the TTS.

According to PU registrar Prof Dr Naeem Khan, the appointment has opened avenues for the able, capable and productive research scientists. “All professors should not be treated as equal. The TTS would give an edge to quality teachers having international research publications and create a competitive environment,” he said.

He said the TTS had allowed the varsity to pay teachers according to their worth. He said “Publish or Perish” would be the slogan for the 21st century research culture.

Answering a question, Prof Khan said that more faculty members from the Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology were in line, who had applied for posts under the system.

The SBS BoGs, which met under PU Vice-Chancellor Arshad Mahmood, also allowed two-year extension to three directors — Prof Dr Abdul Rauf Shakoori, who retired as varsity’s zoology department head and was currently serving as president of the Zoological Society of Pakistan and Editor-in-Chief of Pakistan Journal of Zoology; Prof Dr Javed Iqbal, who retired as botany department chairman and Prof Dr Waheed Akhtar, who retired as pioneer director of varsity’s Institute of Bio-Chemistry and Bio-Technology and dean of science faculty.

The BoG also discussed the extension case of SBS director-general Prof Dr Muhammad Akhtar, and agreed that the issue be taken up next year when his tenure ends.

It also reviewed the implementation of HEC quality criteria in M.Phil and PhD programmes.

SBS DG Prof Muhammad Akhtar presented progress report on academic and research activities of the school. He told the meeting that the school had initiated research in several fields.