KARACHI, Oct 25: Several senior teachers of Karachi University have urged the government not to roll back the process of liberal research support and institutional development initiated by the Higher Education Commission for the first time in the country’s history and instead take a lead over the past military regime by providing more funds to the HEC and removing flaws in the higher education system.

The university teachers were expressing concern over the budgetary cuts in the development expenditures imposed by the HEC and its fallout against the backdrop of Dr Atta-ur-Rehman’s departure from the HEC. Talking to Dawn, they criticized the government for the delay in appointing a new HEC chairman, which, they said, was affecting higher education works.

“It has been over two weeks [since Dr Rehman left] and the government has yet to appoint a new chairman. This just shows the lack of seriousness on the part of the government in dealing with matters related to higher education,” one of them said.

Underlining the significance of quality research, others said that though research was an expensive preposition, it was no luxury. “Progress in science and technology is the only way to dignified existence among countries such as China and India, which are ahead of us only because they made extensive investment in education and research,” a senior member of the science faculty said.

“The slogan of agricultural economy is good only for meeting the country’s food demands. But if we want to compete with the world, we will have to develop and strengthen the industrial infrastructure, and that can be done only through liberal support to higher education,” he said, adding that the process of awarding research funds must be free from bureaucratic wrangling.

Voicing similar sentiments, Dr Iqbal Chaudhry, who heads the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, said it was wrong to say that the HEC had given excessive funds to universities.

He said: “Nobody ever tried to investigate the authenticity of this oft-repeated statement. The reality is that the amount allocated for higher education in our country is nothing if compared with the university allocations of other countries. For instance, the budget of any Indian institute of technology is not less than Rs10 billion, while the HEC’s total budget is Rs20 billion. The budget of a single university in Singapore is more than the entire HEC’s budget. With the population of 170 million people, Pakistan has the lowest enrolment of university students, and that is about 200,000.”

He said universities in the public sector were in a shambles. “With the HEC’s formation, institutions started getting a little support though they need more help so that they can start helping the industrial sector. The rehabilitation of the present infrastructure is the biggest challenge the universities are facing,” Dr Iqbal Chaudhry said.

About the departure of Dr Atta-ur-Rehman, he said that nobody was indispensable. “What is important is the government’s commitment to higher education. The current financial crunch is part of the national crisis we are in. But we hope that the government would not falter on the cause of higher education,” he added.

Misuse of HEC funds

Dr Shahana Urooj, the dean of the faculty of science, talking about the KU’s financial crisis stressed that a strategy be developed to tackle the grave situation. “The government must provide support to projects for which allocations have already been approved. However, there is also a need to re-evaluate the HEC-funded programmes and check the inappropriate use of funds,” she said.

Pinpointing some flaws in the HEC-funded projects at the university, Dr Nasiruddin Khan, the head of the KU’s Centralised Science Laboratory, said: “I feel we have lost a golden opportunity to rectify and strengthen our infrastructure mainly due to lack of planning and management.”

He said one should appreciate the fact that the HEC gave scholarships to research students and brought in a lot of development funds, but there was an acute lack of planning and there was no independent body to ensure transparency and a right use of funds. “There are many examples in the university where buildings were erected and costly equipment was bought without envisaging the post-construction issues. For instance, the provision of electricity and appointment of teachers and technical staff,” he added.

Dr Khan suggested that the HEC should check the mushrooming growth of public sector universities in small cities and strengthen the old institutions. “The government should also broaden the scope of scholarship programmes and continue to support thousands of students who have gone abroad so that they come back and work in the country in pursuance of their respective agreements with the government,” he said. He also said that the criteria of the HEC to assess research output on the basis of publications were completely unjustified. Rather the basis should be the originality and novelty of an idea.

Dr Khan said the tenure track and foreign faculty programmes, which had failed, should be scrapped forthwith and the government should train the local faculty of each institution. “At the same time, the government should continue to support the ongoing projects. A large amount of money already spent on erecting infrastructures and purchasing costly equipment will go waste and the university will run into a serious crisis over the non-payment of dues if these projects are stopped in the middle.”

KU financial woes

KU Planning and Development Director S.M. Iqbal said the university’s liabilities were increasing because of galloping inflation. “We received only 15 per cent of the allocated development grant for the last financial year’s fourth quarter. The first quarter of the financial year went smoothly as the university received the amount, but there has been a delay in the payment of the money allocated for the second quarter.”

He further said: “The situation may become critical if the payment for development projects for this quarter is not made. An HEC representative is due here next week and we are keeping our fingers crossed.”

About the recurring grant, S.M. Khalid, the KU’s finance director, said the grant was being received and spent on essential expenses.

According to him, there are about six projects in different stages of development at various departments. Foreign scholarships are also part of development projects. “We will continue support to students who have gone abroad under an agreement with the university so they can come back and serve here.”

He also said the Dr Feroz Ahmed Institute of Mass Communication and the Umer Basha Institute of Technology had been made functional while the food science department would be shifted to its new premises within six weeks.

The Institute of Proteomics, however, couldn’t be made functional on account of failure to arrange foreign faculty for the highly specialised field, he said.

About the university’s electricity crisis that severely affected research work, he said there had been a plan for the installation of five gas-run generators, but it couldn’t be implemented due to lack of funds.

Classes resume

Classes resumed on Saturday at the KU after two days of suspension, forced by protests by the Student Alliance and the employees’ union. No disturbance was reported and classes were held according to schedule.