LAHORE: The 357th meeting of the Punjab University senate on Wednesday approved Rs12.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2021-2022.
The meeting conducted online was presided over by Governor/Chancellor Chaudhry Sarwar. PU Vice Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmed, Pro Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Saleem Mazhar and more than 150 members of the senate participated.
Addressing the meeting, the governor said instructions had been given to the finance department to give exemption to the universities with reference to 25 per cent disparity allowance.
He said the universities, who could afford to pay disparity allowance to their employees through their own sources, would be autonomous to make decisions in this regard.
Briefing the senate, Prof Niaz Ahmed highlighted the salient features of the budget and said the amount of scholarships given to students was greater than the tuition fees the university received from them.
He said during Covid-19, the administration waived off fee and for some other reasons the income sources had shrunk.
However, he said, the university was coping with the budget deficit by controlling expenditure and adopting austerity measures.
He said owing to the efforts of the chancellor, the federal government had promised to increase funding from Rs2.8bn to Rs3.3bn.
The VC requested the governor to approve honorarium for PU teachers as a token of acknowledgement of their good performance for continuation of the process of education during Covid-19. The governor accorded approval to the [honorarium] proposal.
Presenting the annual report, the VC said the university had improved its international ranking by 16pc.
He said for the first time, PU’s 13 subjects had been ranked internationally and the chemical and petroleum engineering department ranked among top 100-150 institutions in the world by the QS.
Prof Niaz Ahmed said the PU also improved its Asian ranking and it stood at 178th position, making a considerable jump of 54 points in just two years.
He said The Nature Publishing Group, a world-class publisher of high impact scientific and medical information in print and online founded in 1869, has also ranked Punjab University No 1 in terms of research publications in the field of natural sciences amongst all Pakistani universities.
Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2021