The Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) has submitted reservations and suggestions on controversial eligibility criteria regarding appointment of vice chancellors at public sector universities to Higher Education Department (HED)
Lahore, (Pakistan Point News - 13th Feb, 2018) : The Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) has submitted reservations and suggestions on controversial eligibility criteria regarding appointment of vice chancellors at public sector universities to Higher education Department (HED). According to their letter addressed to HED Secretary, signed by FAPUASA Punjab President Prof Dr Javed Ahmad, Central Vice President Prof Dr Shoaib Ahmed, UET TSA President Prof Dr Sohail Aftab Qureshi, Vice President Prof Dr Zafar Noon, PU syndicate members Prof Dr Sajid Rashid and Dr Mahboob Hussain and UET Syndicate Member Prof Dr Abdul Sattar Shaker, FAPUASA has submitted that the new eligibility criteria had ignored some very basic and vital parameters of measurement of professional excellence of an academic leader.
For instance, it said, no marks were given for post-doc experience, no credit for PhD and M Phil research supervision, no weightage was given for university level teaching experience, no credit for membership/fellowship of national/international academic organizations/bodies and no weightage for academic research projects was given in the new criteria. The FAPUASA stated further that overall in the criteria, systematically space had been created for entry of non-academic managers which is not acceptable.
They said the management experience must be relevant to academic/research experience. The letter, pointing out technical deficiencies, stated that the basic qualification for the post of VC must be PhD in relevant field of university instead of preferably PhD. The federation of teachers said that in the criteria, additional marks for MA degree and lowering basic qualification of vice chancellorship would be ridiculous and unacceptable. The FAPUASA pointed out that work experience was not clear that what kind of organization a candidate must have worked for? They suggested that the candidate must have 15 years of teaching/research experience.
They said that the government must consider academic/research leadership experience of candidates rather than non-academic/non-research leadership experience. FAPUASA pointed out that no funding agency had extended Rs 500 million grant to individuals from academic/research organizations.
