HEC forms body to probe GCU scam

LAHORE:The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has constituted a fact finding committee to probe into the allegations of irregularities in the Foreign Faculty Hiring Programme (FFHP) at GCU Lahore’s Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences.

According to a press release, the committee will also review the operation of FFHP at other universities. The three-member committee will probe the matter and will submit its recommendation to the competent authority within one month.

A spokesperson for the HEC said while, the committee will not probe into the details being investigated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) at GCU Lahore, it will address the overall concerns arising out of the reports published in a section of the press, and being commented upon on social media.

Foreign Faculty Hiring Programme was launched by HEC in 2003 to seek services of qualified academics and researchers for offering technical support in development of new programmes, providing trainings for teaching and research, and building capacity for PhD supervision. The foreign faculty programme was not limited to GCU, and around 40 universities across Pakistan benefitted from the qualified visiting experts. Over 300 highly qualified professors joined various universities under this programme, concluded the spokesperson.

GCU VC: Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi, the Vice Chancellor of Government College University (GCU) Lahore, has met Pakistani Ambassador to USA Dr Asad Majeed Khan at Washington, DC and sought his support and facilitation for establishing research and academic linkages with the top American universities.

According to a press release issued by the university on Tuesday, the Vice Chancellor was on a three-day trip to America where he was invited by the US National Academy of Medicine to address a workshop on Social, Behavioral, & Environmental Enablers for Healthy Longevity.

Seminar: Renowned social scientist from University of Leeds, UK Prof Dr Salman Sayyid has said there must be decolonisation of higher education in Pakistani universities in order to become producer of new knowledge than becoming consumer of higher education.

He was addressing a seminar organised by the Punjab University’s Institute of Social and Cultural Studies (ISCS) on “Decolonizing Higher Education in the Global South and challenges facing higher education” here on Tuesday. PU Dean Faculty of Islamic Studies Prof Dr Hammad Lakhvi, ISCS Director Prof Dr Rubina Zakar and faculty members were present on the occasion. Dr Salman said there was major transformation in higher education sector throughout the world. He said efforts were being made to make higher education economically viable. He said the universities in global north played important role to contribute in local and regional economy. However, he said, the universities here could not produce desired results due to colonisation of higher education. He said decolonisation of higher education would result in recognition of importance of location. He said simply replication made local universities inferior and irrelevant. Prof Dr Omer Abdullah said most new UK students had a debt of almost 60,000 pounds when they graduated. He said British higher education system was now counted one of the most expensive higher education systems in the world. He said that higher education sector was lacking appropriate research funding.