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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Quaid-i-Azam University: delivering excellence on a shoestring budget

A recent piece in these pages titled, ‘Land Scams and the Academia’ caught my attention. Written by Dr. S. M. Naseem, an eminent and articulate economist, the article focuses on the travails of public-sector universities. In particular, it examines the financial plight of Quaid-i-Azam University. While there is no denying

By our correspondents
June 01, 2015
A recent piece in these pages titled, ‘Land Scams and the Academia’ caught my attention. Written by Dr. S. M. Naseem, an eminent and articulate economist, the article focuses on the travails of public-sector universities. In particular, it examines the financial plight of Quaid-i-Azam University. While there is no denying Dr. Naseem’s basic thesis, there is much more than financial resources (or the lack thereof) that ails our public-sector academic institutions.
Let us start with the positive. The Higher Education Commission has consistently ranked Quaid-i-Azam University first in the country, based on the research of its faculty. Just a few months ago, a leading publication in the United States, US News and World Report ranked QAU one of the top 500 universities in the world — an achievement that no other academic institution in Pakistan was able to achieve. What makes this enormously impressive is that QAU has achieved this feat on a shoe-string budget. HEC Chairman Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed is on record as stating that even moderate-size universities in the United States have budgets that exceed the combined budgets of all universities in Pakistan. Had there been an index that ranked university performance relative to the expenditure per faculty member, QAU would undoubtedly rank among the very top in the world. If there was ever a David against Goliath in the world of academics, QAU would be the former pitted against the mighty institutions of learning in the West.
Quaid-i-Azam University is Pakistan’s only truly national university. It draws students from every corner of the country under a government-established regional quota system. The university is a national treasure — delivering in spite of severe financial constraints, while simultaneously held hostage to lack of autonomy; its private-sector counterparts having no such restrictions.
This brings us to some of the issues that face public-sector universities in general, and Quaid-i-Azam University in particular. There are of course, the limited budgets which do not allow for upkeep of the universities’ physical infrastructure. At QAU, the auditorium has a leaking roof, mould and fungus on the walls, and paint that is peeling off in several sections. A number of the other buildings are in equally poor shape. The less said about the condition of the hostels, the better. At QAU’s National Institute of Psychology, an under-construction auditorium stands eighty per cent complete for two years; lack of funding keeping the project from moving towards completion. While it is undoubtedly true that the reverence elite universities command is not because of the splendour of their architecture, adequate infrastructure is obviously a prerequisite to the lofty goals that institutions of excellence set for themselves.
Lack of autonomy remains another perpetual irritant. Public-sector universities, for example, are not free to set their own rules for promotion of faculty, but must follow the dictates of the HEC, which are often viewed as arbitrary and devoid of reason. Meanwhile, nimble and agile private-sector universities without the encumbrance of government regulations are free to leap-frog their public-sector counterparts in the bid for academic excellence. A case in point: public-sector professors must retire at age 60, where no such constraint exists for private universities. The result is that the best of our faculty upon attaining that age seek employment in private institutions. Many of them, superstars who cut their academic teeth at QAU, and honed their research skills with us, now train their guns at us in the race for rankings. Their scholarly arsenals were built up in our research laboratories and classrooms. At the apex of their academic careers, they defect to our competitors — in many cases not because they want to — but because they have no choice. Just last week, QAU’s Syndicate approved an increase in the retirement age of faculty to 65. However, it is too early — as the Western expression goes — to uncork the champagne just yet. The decision must first go through the labyrinth of government departments that have the final say in all matters, both academic and otherwise. No matter that the faculty of the country’s top-ranked research university made this considered judgment through its highest decision-making body, the Syndicate.
I have lived in the United States for many years. In joining Quaid-i-Azam University only recently, I hope to carry on with a tradition that I have observed from close quarters in that country. Those who wear the robes of the administrative head of a university are expected to raise funds for their institutions from private and public-sector donors. That drive has begun at QAU. Mr. Ashraf Wathra, the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, himself an alumnus of QAU, has promised to support us in our revenue-enhancement mission. Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, who holds an MBA from the Wharton School, a great proponent of higher education in this country, and as forward-looking a politician as they come, has promised significant financial help to us. Some embassies of friendly countries have expressed a desire to partner with us in our pursuit of academic excellence. The Hashoo Foundation and other institutions have been approached. Mr. Mukhtar Ahmad, the Chairman of the HEC, a well-meaning and committed gentleman has been a pillar of support for QAU. We have high expectations of him. We hope that in the months and years ahead, Pakistan’s leading university will climb to even loftier academic plateaus than it has thus far.
The author recently assumed the position of Vice-Chancellor at Quaid-i-Azam University. He is a former Director of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi. He has served as Dean of the Cameron School of Business at the University of St. Thomas in Houston (USA), where he also held the Cullen Endowed Chair in Economics.