TTS faculty set to get pay raise after years of stagnation

Islamabad:The All Pakistan Tenure Track Association has hailed the federal government’s green light for the technical supplementary grant aimed to raise the salaries of university professors under the Tenure Track System (TTS), saying the move recognises the hard work and struggles faced by TTS faculty, whose wages have been frozen since 2021.

“TTS faculty have had to tough it out through years of record inflation and escalating taxes without any regular salary hikes. We’re truly thankful to the prime minister, finance minister and education minister for finally addressing the longstanding issue of salary stagnation. This boost will have a meaningful impact on thousands of faculty members and their families across the country,” APTTA chairman Dr Asif Ali told reporters here.

While appreciating the government's decision, Dr Asif highlighted several major concerns regarding the implementation of the office memorandum issued by the finance division and its long-term sustainability.

He advocated for a uniform salary structure and said authorities should ensure that the pay raise is uniformly applied across all three cadres (assistant professors, associate professors and professors), maintaining the same rate of increase as has been practiced since the introduction of TTS in 2005.

"This will ensure fairness and equity in the salary structure, preventing potential disparities or anomalies," he said. The APTTA leader emphasised the importance of maintaining a standardised salary package for all TTS faculty members across higher education institutions in the country, including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

"Since the introduction of TTS in 2005, faculty members have received the same salary package nationwide," he said, calling for this uniformity to be preserved to promote consistency and fairness.

Dr Asif said that the Basic Pay Scale used to determine the TTS package should be based on either the pay scale given to employees of the Higher Education Commission or the BPS applied to a federal university like Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad.

This approach will ensure transparency and fairness in the salary calculation process, according to him. The APTTA chairman said the association expected that the salaries of TTS faculty members would be automatically adjusted by the same percentage given to BPS employees (maintaining at least a 35 per cent gap between TTS and BPS salaries) whenever an increase was granted to BPS employees of federal universities.

He added that the measure would guarantee fair and equitable salary adjustments for TTS faculty members. "We hope that authorities will consider these concerns and ensure a fair and equitable implementation of the salary increase," he said.

Dr Asif promised to collaborate with authorities and other stakeholders to address the challenges faced by TTS faculty members and promote the success and welfare of the higher education sector in the country.