PESHAWAR, Nov 12: The Higher Education Regulatory Authority, which was set up in 2002 to check the mushroom growth of private colleges and universities in the NWFP, is facing problems in fulfilling its responsibilities because of lack of funds and facilities.

The authority, which generates its funds through registration and renewal fees from

degree colleges, professional and semi-professional colleges and universities in the private sector, is finding it difficult to carry out its functions of surveillance and scrutiny of educational institutions in remote areas as it has no transport facility.

“The one-time grant of Rs1.5 million was consumed in setting up of the authority’s office in a rented building and employment of staff. Lack of funds is the main impediment in its performance,” the organisation’s Chairman Prof Humayun Zia told Dawn.

The authority has sought a one-time grant from the NWFP government to meet its immediate requirements and financial assistance from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for strengthening it.

The HEC had agreed in principle to providing a one-time grant-in-aid, said Prof Zia, a former vice-chancellor of the NWFP University of Engine-ering and Technology.

The authority pays Rs24,000 monthly rent of its office.

“We have also demanded that the provincial government should provide at least four kanals for a building at a suitable place for the office,” said Prof Zia.

The authority has generated Rs4.5 million through the fees. It has registered 80 colleges, seven universities and three campuses since 2002 and has carried out around 200 inspections to check quality of education in private institutions.

It has detected and taken to the court one case pertaining to the Aryana University.

The authority has a staff comprising five people, including the chairman.

It needed three permanent and one ex-officio member to carry out periodic inspections for monitoring the performance of the institutions and ensure the standard of their academic programmes, Prof Zia said.

“The members use taxies for visits as the authority has no vehicle,” he said and added that the lack of equipment was also hindering the authority’s performance.

He said the criteria for the establishment of colleges and universities had been kept very strict to ensure quality of education and encourage competition among the private educational institutions.

There were around 115 educational institutions in the private sector which had not registered with authority and were running illegally, Prof Zia said.

“I want to develop a database and a web portal. We need computers and staff. We want to hold seminars for awareness and all this requires funds,” he said.

Former chief minister Akram Khan Durrani had a few months ago expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the authority and a committee had recommended financial autonomy and legal powers for the authority. The recommendations are with the law department.