ISLAMABAD, March 12: The department of administrative sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), has failed to produce a single Ph.D since its inception in 1975, mainly due to red-tapism and paucity of funds.

Sources told Dawn that though the basic purpose for establishing the university was to promote research in various disciplines, the number of research publications was constantly going down, and departments of social sciences had not kept pace with the other universities to produce M.Phil and Ph.Ds at the QAU.

Citing examples of the bureaucratic red-tapism, the sources said the administrative sciences department took the initiative of sending research proposals of six candidates to the vice-chancellor’s office in September 2001, but even after the passage of more than six months it was still pending with the university’s research board.

About falling standards of education at the university, the sources said it was for the first time in several years that two seats in the MBA self-finance programme went empty. As compared to the previous years when over 1,000 students used to apply for admission, only around 300 applications were received last year.

Complaining about the shortage of funds, they said the department carried out renovation work and brought out a directory of the former students with the help of multinational companies and ex-students.

Needs and requirements of the administrative sciences were different from other social sciences, the sources said arguing for the allocation of more funds to run research activities smoothly.

The sources said the QAU was one of the few universities in the public sector where the department of administrative sciences had failed to attain the status of an institute. All the other universities had established independent institutes of their administrative sciences departments.

This showed that the quality of education and facilities for the students and faculty were comparatively better in such institutes.

A proposal was given to the university administration for making the department an institute, but so far the file was believed to be gathering dust, sources said.

Answering a question, the sources said that many government departments requested the university for providing public administration training, but due to lack of facilities the department was unable to carry out the same.

Then the government approached the universities in Lahore or Karachi to get their staff trained in management and public administration.

In many cases, tax payer’s money was spent by either sending candidates to other cities or by calling the professors to the capital and ensuring their TA/DA and stay in luxurious hotels, the sources said.

The tax money could be saved if facilities were provided to the department for imparting training to the government officials at the AU, they added.