LAHORE: As many as 32 public sector universities vice chancellors and Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) former chairperson have unanimously rejected the proposed amendments to the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Act 2014, expressing concerns that the bill would result in a deterioration of quality in higher education.

The VCs expressed these concerns in an online meeting held at the PHEC headquarters on Monday.

They lamented that the proposed amendments would open doors to the mushroom growth of private universities without any checks and balances on the quality of higher education in Punjab.

Denouncing the proposed moves in the Punjab Assembly, the chairman of the Vice Chancellor Committee and vice chancellor at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad, said the government should drop the proposed amendments to the PHEC Act 2014 as they would deprive the PHEC of its autonomy and make it a subsidiary of the Punjab Higher Education Department (HED).

Former PHEC chief says HED wants complete control of commission and end to its autonomy

The VCs also opposed the proposed move of the private member’s bill to deregulate medical education and the unchecked mushroom growth of allied health sciences education in Punjab.

The proposed amendments have already been opposed by the PHEC Commission members in a full house meeting on Dec 19 fearing that they would curtail the commission’s role to regulate the public and private higher education institutions (HEIs) and make it toothless.

PHEC former chairperson Dr Nizam told Dawn he was shocked to know about the proposal to amend PHEC Act 2014.

“I have read the proposed amendments and they are not being introduced for better reasons and the HED is planning to completely control the PHEC and end its autonomous structure.”

Mr Nizam said the action would bring about resentment in the academic circles. He suggested to the government that if it wanted to keep a check on the institutions it should establish a chancellor office in every university to look after the work of the Syndicate.

“There was a body, Senate, in the universities act of 1974 and a chancellor would chair the Senate to review and endorse the work of the Syndicate.”

Mr Nizam said that after if implemented, the proposed amendments would give all powers to the higher education minister while the increase in the number of the MPAs to four as members of the Syndicate in the public universities was already creating problems in the universities established under universities act 2002 and 2018.

The former chief of the PHEC said a VC should chair the Syndicate and the governor should chair the Senate to keep monitoring the working of the universities.

While commenting on private universities working, he said the amendments were also proposed to stop monitoring of private universities in the province and these universities were also not implementing any standards proposed by the HEC and PHEC. He said the HED was planning to end the autonomy of the public universities and the obsession of power would lead to further compromise on the quality of education.

The meeting of the VCs passed a resolution that these amendments would deteriorate the quality of education and hamper the autonomy of the PHEC.

It demanded the government drop the plan of amendments to the PHEC Act 2014 and consult all the stakeholders before going for any such move.

The meeting was attended by VCs from public sector universities across Punjab, including Islamia University Bahawalpur, University of Home Economics, Lahore, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Women University Multan, Emerson University Multan, MNS University of Engineering and Technology Multan, University of Sahiwal, GC university Faisalabad, University of Education Lahore, Punjab Tianjin University of Technology Lahore, Punjab University of Technology Rasul, Mir Chakar Khan Rind University DG Khan, Ghazi University DG Khan, Fatima Jinnah Women University Rawalpindi, King Edward Medical University Lahore, Fatima Jinnah Medical University Lahore, UET Lahore, Information Technology University Lahore, University of the Punjab Lahore, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, GC University Lahore, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore, University of Sargodha, University of Health Sciences Lahore, University of Gujrat, Govt College Women University Faisalabad, MNS University of Agriculture Multan, Nishtar Medical University Multan, and others.

At the end, all participants endorsed that the efforts for undermining the PHEC Act for evaluating, monitoring and accreditation should not be proceeded in any manner whatsoever.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2022