Compromising autonomy of Universities in Punjab may harm higher education: VCs.

ISLAMABAD -- The draft 'Punjab Public Sector Universities Amendment Act 2020' undermines the autonomy of the Universities by allowing the appointment of the retired bureaucrats and judges as chairpersons of the syndicates of the universities depriving the vice-chancellors and teachers of their right.

Speaking at a webinar on 'The Autonomy of Higher Education Institutions in Pakistan' organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Saturday, the senior academicians including the vice-chancellors of various universities said that the university teachers' fraternity and the vice-chancellors of the Universities in Punjab are resisting the draft amendment demanding that the autonomy of the Universities and VCs should not be compromised in the interest of higher education in the province.

The academicians were of the view that the proposed Act has been drafted without taking the stakeholders on board who will not allow compromise on the autonomy of the Universities.

They were of the view that instead of curtailing the powers of Vice-Chancellors of the Universities in Punjab, they should be given autonomy to appoint their teams including Deans, Chairpersons of Departments and centers, pro vice-chancellors and the treasures, etc. The University teachers' fraternity feels that such an attempt will end intellectual freedom and harm independent academic research once the University syndicates will be headed by retired non-academician bureaucrats and judges and others who do not know what is higher education and academic freedom. This may be a conspiracy to curtail intellectual freedom.

Dr Fateh Mari, Executive Director, Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, was of the view that any kind of law-making requires a wider debate among the stakeholders before a formal draft is finalized. Besides, he said, the draft should come in the public domain for a consultative process. 'We have witnessed amendments in various university acts but the basic framework always remained intact,' he said, adding that the freedom and autonomy are important for quality higher education.

Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI, earlier presented an overview of the situation that has been emerged after surfacing of the proposed draft. He said any such effort if allowed to get materialized would have a disastrous impact on the autonomy of the universities. 'The civil society and think tanks would lend their complete support to academia to...

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