ISLAMABAD: The governing body of Higher Education Commission on Saturday deplored yet another cut in the budget for higher education by the federal government in the new budget and warned that it will lead to closure of universities in the country.
“The Commission unanimously deplored the sudden cut in the higher education budget by another Rs.5.90 billion from the committed Indicative Budget Ceiling of Rs.70.00 billion for FY 2020-21, and emphasized that the move will dismantle the country’s higher education systems by forcing the shutdown of universities, which are already suffering from historically unprecedented budgetary shortfalls and the impact of the Covid crisis” said the official handout issued after the two-day meeting of the commission.
The government has allocated Rs. 65 billion for higher education in the annual budget for the next financial year presented in the parliament on Friday. HEC has demanded Rs. 104 billion for smooth running of higher education system of the country.
The allocations for financial year 2020-21 is even little less than Rs. 64.1 billion extended by the government for higher education in outgoing fiscal 2019-20.
Besides cuts in demands for various other heads, the government allocated only Rs. 29 billion for development projects, against Rs. 40 billion demanded by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
The members of governing body of HEC stressed upon the Government to reconsider its decision, and take immediate steps to appropriately fund the universities in order to protect access to and quality of higher education.
The Commission in its 36th meeting which held online, stressed that without adequate investment on higher education, the youth of Pakistan will never acquire the competencies needed to develop and compete internationally.
HEC had requested the government to allocate Rs.104.789 billion as recurring grant for FY 2020-21. The requirement included funds for universities as well as for pursuing the HEC research agenda, start of several new initiatives (NAHE, ETC, HEMIS, PERU, and P-15 Research Universities), funding for the Tenure Track Faculty, funding for the Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN), and the resources needed to meet COVID-19 related challenges.
The meeting chaired by HEC chairman Tariq Banuri, also reviewed HEC funding formula for universities, took into account various proposals, and decided that for FY 2020-21, the actual total allocation of FY 2019-20 will be treated as base plus need grants, accounting for 85 percent of the total allocation, while the remaining 15 percent will be treated as a performance grant, allocated on the basis of the number of publications, the number and amount of research grants received, as well as number of PhD faculty and students.
It was also agreed that for FY 2021-22 and beyond, a new funding methodology will be developed on the principles of equity, needs, and credit for performance.
The Commission amended the Tenure Track Statutes by indexing TTS salaries to the comparable BPS scale plus a 35percent TTS Premium, thus introducing automatic adjustments of future TTS salaries in line with increases in BPS salary scales.
Consistent with the international practice, the Commission increased the maximum time limit for the tenure decision from the current 6 years to 9 years, and endorsed collection of granular data of TTS faculty separately in HEMIS (Higher education Management Information System) to help universities and HEC maintain proper oversight over the progress of TTS faculty, and improve transparency and fairness of recruitment, promotion and tenure.
The Commission appreciated the comprehensive work done by the HEC in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, to minimize academic disruption, develop and guide universities to acquire online readiness, provide supplementary resources of Rs.1.20 billion, deploy live dashboard to monitor quality of online delivery, build free online academic content and resources, and motivate students to continue learning.
The Commission impressed upon the Government to support HEC initiatives viz. Taleem Bundle, University Support Package, etc., and advised HEC to resolve connectivity issues faced by students, and use platforms such as virtual think tanks to carve out imaginative solutions.
Also Read: Universities, students to suffer with Rs. 64b allocated for HEC against Rs. 104b required
