ISLAMABAD: University teachers from the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) protested outside the Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Wednesday against its “damaging policies”.

A few dozen teachers protested outside the commission, after which, the association said, some of their colleagues have set up a protest camp where they will spend the night.

The teachers shouted slogans against HEC Chairman Dr Tariq Banuri and carried a list of demands that included a stop to HEC interference in universities’ affairs, the restoration of terminated faculty, an increase in the higher education budget, post PhD conditions for basic pay scale (BPS) faculty, issues facing tenure track system teachers, the withdrawal of a new journal policy, representation of the FAPUASA in policymaking and a new admissions policy.

At a press conference called on Tuesday, ahead of the protest, Dr Banuri had said that the HEC was working to increase opportunities and facilities available to university faculty.

He said that a number of programmes were initiated for faculty for their higher studies and professional development, and to provide guidance to universities on streamlining their hiring and promotion processes.

He had also claimed that there were individuals who were trying to destroy the system by lowering its standards.

At a protest by tenure track teachers a week earlier, the HEC had assured them their issues would be resolved soon, and that the commission had already made a major decision in this regard.

Seemingly attempting to counter the FAPUASA protest, the HEC issued a press release based on a meeting with a delegation of the All Pakistan Universities BPS Teachers Association (APUBTA), which informedDr Banuri of the problems and challenges facing BPS faculty at public sector universities.

The press release said that the APUBTA representatives said BPS faculty make up 88pc of the entire faculty in public sector universities but face systematic and multifaceted discrimination.

They demanded the HEC set up a service structure for BPS faculty, including promotion rules, performance-based incentives and relaxation in post-PhD experience.

They said BPS faculty work under a sense of deprivation and demotivation because of the absence of such rules, inadequacies in benefits and the burden of additional administrative work.

The HEC chairman assured the delegation of the commission’s role to serve all faculty members, both BPS and tenure track. He said this was the first time they had approached the commission, which would work with them to resolve their problems in order to promote the quality of teaching and research on an equitable basis.

Dr Banuri asked them to translate their demands into a concrete proposal for the formulation of draft BPS statutes.

At the association’s request, it was agreed that the commission would obtain the services of a qualified expert in administrative law to provide technical assistance to the association to draft the statutes, the press release said.

The HEC secretariat will review and refine the proposals before submitting their recommendations to the commission for a decision. This process will take three months.

Dr Banuri also urged them to undertake consultations to provide ideas on other critical issues, including the challenge of bringing about a convergence between the tenure track and BPS systems into a single system, and how to encourage people to take up teaching as a profession.

On the matter of post-PhD experience, he asked association members to provide concrete data so a decision could be made after considering the relevant factors.

According to the press release, APUBTA members expressed support for the initiatives introduced by the HEC to improve the quality of education and research, including new policies for undergraduate and graduate education, the new system for financing and promotion of research, and the new classification of research journals.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2020