ISLAMABAD: Even as hundreds of aspiring candidates flock to the institution for the annual entrance test on Wednesday, the National College of Arts’ (NCA) Rawalpindi campus faces the possibility of being removed from the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) list of recognised institutions for not meeting their requirements.

Administrative problems have plagued the institution for over a year now. The HEC had written to the NCA principal in February, 2014, asking him to immediately resolve the “governance issues” that existed between the Lahore campus and the Rawalpindi campus and asked him to hire permanent faculty members. In addition, the commission urged the campus to upgrade their facilities and acquire the necessary equipment, including heavy-duty generators, to meet the Cabinet Criteria Guidelines for such institutions.

HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed expressed concern over the shortage of teaching staff at NCA Rawalpindi. “We have been asking NCA Lahore to overcome this shortfall. The latest reminder [sent on August 6] is part of our campaign to alert universities and degree-awarding institutions to overcome the shortfall of teachers because the quality of education cannot be improved without proper staff,” he said.

NCA Rawalpindi Director Nadeem Omer Tarar admitted that HEC had written a warning letter to Rawalpindi campus, adding that it was primarily because most lecturers were working on a non-permanent basis and there were very few permanent teachers on campus.

Failure to hire faculty, administrative issues put college at risk of not meeting the criteria

A faculty member told Dawn that the college received a separate Rs100 million grant for the sub-campus every year. However, administrative control still rests with the principal in Lahore.

NCA Rawalpindi was established in 2005 as a sub-campus of the prestigious NCA Lahore. The first batch of 15 students graduated from this campus in 2008 and today, there are over 400 students at this institute. But despite being around for so many years, the campus’ PC-1 is yet to be completely implemented.

According to the PC-1, the campus has 25 sanctioned posts for permanent faculty, but only five permanent teachers. To overcome this shortage, the campus has been employing teachers on an ad-hoc basis and sources say staff members’ contracts are only extended by a few months each time they are renewed. The campus also lacks a digital library and other modern facilities.

Sources also said that the NCA Board of Governors (BoG) had abolished the post of director in the Rawalpindi campus, but a final notification in this regard is yet to be issued. In the interim, Dr Tarar is still calling the shots here.

“I was appointed in a transparent manner and there was no issue with my appointment… how can a campus be run without a director or administrator? These are the grounds on which I took up the matter before the Cabinet Division,” Dr Tarar told Dawn.

NCA Lahore Principal Dr Murtaza Jafri, however, said that the position of director does not exist in the PC-1 of the institution. He also played down the faculty shortage, saying that things had “settled down now”.

In a separate letter, written on Aug 11 in response to the HEC’s reminder of Aug 6, Dr Jafri states that the NCA BoG and the board’s selection committee were only recently constituted after a gap of well over two years.

He told Dawn that the committee had been formed and would fill the vacant positions soon in line with HEC criteria and also said that tenders for the purchase of additional equipment as well as the upgrade of existing facilities had been floated too.

Students’ worries

Teachers and administrative staff are not the only ones affected by the issues between NCA Lahore and Rawalpindi. After the HEC threatened to de-list the Rawalpindi campus, alumni and current students have also become active on social media.

A Facebook group, ‘We Need To Wake Up’, has been created where students, both past and present, are sharing updates and concerns regarding the future of the campus. Most students say that the bureaucracy and power struggle has unduly affected their academic progress and that the uncertainty around the fate of NCA Rawalpindi must be put to rest.

Several students Dawn spoke to complained that the disconnection between the Lahore and Rawalpindi campuses made life very difficult for them. Transcripts are issued from Rawalpindi campus, but degrees can only be obtained from Lahore.

“If we go abroad, we will have to produce both a transcript and a degree from an HEC-recognised institution. But in case the HEC de-lists NCA Rawalpindi, the futures of all current students and alumni will be at stake,” the founder of the Facebook group told Dawn, on condition of anonymity.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2015

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