KARACHI, Oct 12: Expressing grave concern over the deteriorating standards of educational institutions in the province, speakers at a panel discussion on Wednesday said that the governor — the chancellor of all public-sector universities in Sindh — was directly responsible for the mess varsities were in today as he had been appointing incompetent persons to head them.

The chancellor, they said, should authorise the statutory bodies of universities to form a search committee for the selection of vice chancellors in order to uphold the principles of merit and bring transparency in appointments.

The programme, Search Committees for Vice Chancellor’s Appointment: Anomalies and Concerns, was held on the Karachi University (KU) campus.

The participants of the discussion severely criticised the current formation of the search committee for VC’s appointment and said that candidates must not be members of the search committees as it was against the basic principles of morality and merit.

“Irrelevant people, too, are sitting in search committees while the criterion for an applicant is very subjective. The rules of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) are also not being followed in the appointment of vice chancellors,” said Barrister Anwar Kamal, who has been fighting different cases on the relevant subject in Punjab.

Barrister Kamal was of the opinion that academic institutions in the country should be allowed to adopt the methods being practised in the universities of the developed world where such search committees were approved by the relevant university’s statutory bodies.

While giving details of the cases, he referred to two women’s universities, one functioning in Lahore and the other in Rawalpindi, whose search committees for the selection of vice chancellors didn’t have a single woman member.

Dr Riaz Ahmed, a senior teacher at KU’s applied chemistry department, said that the serving vice chancellors of Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi University, Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam, and director of the Institute of Business Administration were the members of the search committee for vice chancellor’s appointment in universities.

“What is happening right now in the name of search committee is fraud. The chancellor has failed the universities by appointing unqualified individuals who are willing to do whatever he suggests like the recent case of conferment of an honorary degree on a minister,” he said.

He lamented that the university’s statutory bodies were playing no role in the affairs of the campus, as all decisions were being taken by one individual. He termed the method stated in the KU code for the appointment of vice chancellor as ‘undemocratic’ as it gave one individual, the chancellor, the sole right to appoint the vice chancellor.

“The procedure recommended by the HEC also has several deficiencies and there is a need for reformation based on the principles of merit and transparency,” he added.

Dr Shershah Syed, a KU graduate and a member of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, said that the responsibility for failing varsities didn’t lie with the chancellor alone.

“The faculty members and alumni of the relevant institutions must also share the blame, as they didn’t raise their voice and protest against malpractices.”

Citing an example, Dr Syed said the Dow International Medical College, which was part of the DUHS, had been deceiving students for many years by lying that a hospital was attached to the varsity. “It’s a small ward and not a hospital as the university claims in its prospectus. On top of that, the institution charges its students an exorbitant fee of $12,000 annually,” he said, adding that no one was taking notice of the severe violation of PMDC rules.

He expressed dismay over the prevailing situation and said the discussion could prove futile in that the higher authorities had already decided to extend the services of the DUHS and KU vice chancellors.

He said that ignoring merit in the appointment of vice chancellors and faculty members was the single most important reason for the poor performance of varsities across the country. They were largely part-time institutions, he said, asking where in world a varsity closes at 1pm.

Representing Karachi University Teachers’ Society in the discussion, Dr Fayyaz Vaid said that varsity teachers across the country agreed that a serving teacher should be appointed vice chancellor through a transparent procedure duly approved by university’s statutory bodies.