Vacant posts of VC, Pro-VC affect PU working

PUNJAB UNIVERSITY, which is often regarded as mother of all other universities in Pakistan, has been facing step-motherly treatment from those at the helm as the university is without a Vice Chancellor (VC) for over two weeks and without a Pro-VC (PVC) for almost four months now.

The post of regular VC is in fact vacant since June as the former VC Prof Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar held the position on acting charge basis for quite some time after he completed his four-year term in June this year. Currently with no administrative head, regular or even as a stopgap arrangement to take key decisions, the university is quickly plunging into crisis. This crisis has brought the university to a virtual standstill with the ever growing and multiplying administrative, financial and academic problems in running of the university’s day to day affairs.

The worst among these crises is the delay in starting admission process for the university’s 4-year undergraduate (BS) degree programmes at a time when most universities have almost completed their admission processes.

On average around 300,000 students apply for Punjab University’s BS programmes to vie for around 10,000 seats in several academic departments of the university. These staggering numbers of the applicants should be an eye-opener for all those directly or indirectly responsible for the delay in admissions.

Founded in 1882, Punjab University completed its 140 years of establishment on October 14. With an on-campus student body of around 50,000 students, Punjab University is one of the largest universities of the country.

In absence of a VC, the university cannot hold meetings of its statutory bodies such as Syndicate whereas no meetings of the Selection Board or the Advanced Studies & Research Board (ASRB) could be held. Those at the ultimate loss in the entire crisis are innocent students, as even scholarships cannot be granted without the approval of the Vice Chancellor.

Similarly, the university teachers and employees have been facing problems in terms of award of grants and NOCs while the university’s research projects have also been badly suffering owing to the prevailing situation.

However, those at the helm particularly those sitting at the Higher Education Department (HED) Punjab seem as ever sluggish in their attitude, as they don’t even realize the plight of the students, teachers and employees let alone they actually feel and care for them.

Nonetheless, as the HED Punjab received its seventh administrative secretary this month within a short span of just a year one can imagine the priorities of the provincial government. This frequent change of administrative head at the department had definitely its toll on the selection of VC for the university. Therefore, while the delay in the appointment of top head at Punjab University could be partially because of the HED, the political set up cannot be given a clean chit.

Academic circles are of the view that the government should show some real will this time, even with some stopgap arrangements, so that the university could start its admission process and its academic calendar is not disturbed, as at the end only students would suffer the most.