ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: While the government has increased the Tenure Track Pay Package by 30 per cent, professors in the Basic Pay Scale (BPS) are yet to see the 50 per cent salary increase announced last year and another 15 per cent increment in this year's budget; Dawn has learnt.

Over 70 vice chancellors recently attended a vice chancellors' committee meeting, where they were engaged in heated arguments to deal with the lack of funds, as most universities were even unable to pay salaries. And the gathering was also reminded that faculty members were still denied 50 per cent increase in salaries announced last year and 15 per cent this year while government employees in other public offices had been granted the increases.

However, some professors on the BPS found the TT system discriminatory and stressed the need for another system.

“The gap between the salaries is too much - almost 50 per cent. Unlike major subjects such as Physics, Chemistry and Biology, some faculties have been ignored/not included by default such as Social Sciences and Earth Sciences. And a PhD is mandatory to join the tenure track system,” said a professor at the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), explaining how TTS was publication and not teaching based.

“The rules are so flexible without any fixed structure that it is almost whimsical,” added another professor in the same university.”

He said there was no guarantee that HEC regulations were followed in inducting and evaluating professors in the TT system.

But Vice Chancellor QAU Dr Masoom Yasinzai said the TTS was working better in his university than the BPS. He claimed that 70 per cent of his faculty members had shifted to the TT system.

Explaining how an incentive-based system of income was missing and productive and non-productive faculties were drawing the same salaries, the VC explained: “It is also necessary to retain good faculty. Saudi Arabia today injects $10 billion into its higher education system and is ready to pay professors twice what they make here. The TT system has reversed the brain drain.”

Mr Yasinzai also cleared the air saying accountability of professors in the TT system was strict and HEC rules were followed in latter and spirit. “Anyone not delivering will be demoted into the BPS,” he said.

Vice Chancellor University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, Lt-Gen Mohammad Akram Khan said professors in his institute were finding the TT system less attractive because the salary difference was not much. “It is a problem with other universities but UET is paying its professors the 65 per cent and the 15 per cent increase announced by the government. The TT system is a lot more attractive for the young PhDs returning to Pakistan,” he said, adding the TT system was flexible and professors could shift in and out of the two choices.Under the Tenure Track Pay Package, an assistant professor would start his/her teaching career with Rs100,000 plus salary that can go up to Rs211,250. An associate professor would draw Rs156, 000 to Rs292,500 and a professor would start from Rs234,000 and go up to Rs405, 600

HEC's Executive Director Sohail Naqvi explained: “TTS is completely performance based. Unlike the cosmetic review system in the BPS, TTS is a six-year review process. Assistant professors are hired on a three-year contract and before it is renewed for another three years their works are evaluated by their peers.”

And before promoting assistant professors into the next level, their works were sent to experts of the world who decided if a candidate deserved promotion, he added.

“We needed to have a much higher salary system so that teachers kept the pace going and found the tasks challenging throughout. The system is expanding rapidly and every new PhD is being inducted into the TTS,” he said.

Regarding delay in increasing the salaries of BPS professors, Mr Naqvi expressed the hope that the problem would be solved soon. — Jamal Shahid