SAHIWAL: Some of the pressing issues the newly appointed University of Sahiwal (UoS) vice chancellor (VC) is faced with, among others, include shortage of senior faculty, transition from Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Multan campus to an autonomous institution, seeking No-Objection Certificate (NOC) and accreditation of courses from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and allocation of budget from the Punjab government.

Prof Dr Muhammad Nasir is the first permanent VC at UoS since its inception in 2015. There are more than 1,500 students enrolled at the varsity in eight disciplines.

Though through the Finance and Planning Committee, the VC got recommendations of spending Rs400 million deficit budget to run daily affairs of the university, but its financial autonomy from the BZU and later allocation of a permanent budget from the government were some obstacles that needed to be overcome.

Dr Nasir admitted that due to absence of a permanent VC for two and a half years, the university’s affairs were in disarray. He hoped things would start rolling and shape up soon.

The university has reopened admissions to all its eight departments and sources said that more than 600 students would be admitted to the next academic year 2018-19.

Regarding the shortage of faculty, the VC said the university lacked 75 to 80 per cent teaching staff. “The ideal situation for any university is that it must have a professor, two associate professors, three assistant professors and four lecturers in each department. But presently, each department is running on lowest capacity. The university will advertise all permanent faculty and administrative posts, and the recruitment will be completed in two months.”

A selection board had already been constituted under UoS Act 2015. Dr Muhammad Babar, director of the Institute of Biotechnology at BZU Multan, had been hired for completing the recruitment process.

Assistant Registrar Asghar Shah claimed that a letter had been written to the chancellor and Punjab government to nominate other members of the selection board. The incumbent syndicate recommended to the VC that until the university passed its own service statute the selection committee will follow the statute of the Punjab University for hiring of permanent faculty members.

Sources said that last year, the UoS demanded Rs45 million and Rs1.2 billion under an approved PC-I for non-development and development expenditures, but the Punjab government failed to allocate the amount in the annual budget. For the last three years, no Special Drawing Account had been set up at the Accountant General Office because of which no allocated budget could be transferred to the university.

The VC said a formal request had been sent to the Punjab government for opening of the account. Regarding the NOC and accreditation of courses from HEC, the VC said a meeting with the commission was scheduled for next week.

Furthermore, for financial transition from the BZU, a transition committee had been formed to formulate points of the basic agenda. “Once this exercise gets completed between the UoS and BZU, the chancellor’s office will resolve the financial matters,” a source privy to the situation told Dawn.

On Monday, the VC met with Commissioner Arif Baloch and requested him to help get the government account opened. The commissioner claimed to have talked to the high-ups of the higher education department.

The UoS had been formed by converting the BZU’s Sahiwal campuses into an independent public sector university under UoS Act 2015 passed by the Punjab Assembly during the previous government. But since its inception, the VC’s post was lying vacant. Three weeks ago, the university got its first permanent VC.

Published in Dawn, October 30th , 2018