Committee Meeting VCs' Committee Meeting - Higher Education ...

Commission Events
Vice Chancellors' Committee Meeting
Government Assures Resolution of Budgetary Issues
The Vice Chancellors of the public
sector universities, who had earlier
gathered on July 28 this year, met
again at HEC Secretariat on
September 16, 2010 to request the
Government not to make any cuts
in the budget for higher education
sector and release the funds as
allocated in the national budget.
Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Federal
Finance Minister who also attended
the meeting, assured the vice
chancellors that the Government
was fully cognizant of the problems
being faced by the higher
education institutions. “Though
floods have further burdened the
already fragile economic situation,
we do realize that education and
health should be given a
preferential treatment,” he said.
The Minister asked the vice
chancellors to prioritize their issues
and that their representatives
should sit with the Planning
Commission to devise a strategy to
cope with problems including raise
in salaries, funding for scholars
studying abroad, development of
infrastructure nearing completion
and other imminent problems.
“Once the country recovers from
the financial stress, we would
release maximum funds to support
the higher education institutions.”
Dr. Javaid R. Laghari, Chairperson,
HEC, Dr. Nadeem-ul-Haq, Deputy
Chairman, Planning Commission
and Dr. Sohail Naqvi, Executive
Director, HEC were also present on
the occasion.
Having listened to the Minister, the
Vice Chancellors argued that the
funds being asked for are required
to support and implement the
Education Policy of 2009, asserting
that paucity of funds will spoil the
capacity that has been built over
the last seven to eight years. They
reiterated that the higher
education sector is a priority sector
that requires immediate and urgent
support.
The Minister was told that only the
raise in salaries, medical
allowances and pension,
a n n o u n c e d b y t h e
Government, is causing a
shortfall of seven billion
rupees. Some of them said
that due to non-payment of
dues, the contractors are
approaching the courts but
the universities, especially
new and smaller ones, have
no way to deal with these
p r o b l e m s . “ Q u a l i f i e d
faculty, hired under tenure
track system as well as
foreign faculty hiring
programme, is also looking
for alternate options as
they apprehend the funding
woes of the universities,”
they said.
2
“Even if we raise fee, which is
almost impossible due to expected
resistance from students, we shall
not be able to fill the incomeexpenditure
gap”, said a Vice
Chancellor.
The Minister suggested formation
of a committee to discuss the
financial requirements and to
suggest measures for their
resolution. Dr. Nadeem-ul-Haq
suggested to the vice chancellors to
use universities' assets for
generation of funds and establish
linkages with the businesses and
industry. The vice chancellors,
however, argued that it was a longterm
strategy. “It is easier said than
done. The developed countries
have invested a lot in higher
education sectors that's why their
universities have been able to
generate resources for themselves.
The budget of a single university,
National University of Singapore, is
higher than the whole higher
education budget of Pakistan so
how do we expect to compete at
international level,” remarked a
Vice Chancellor.