Proposal to appoint bureaucrats as VCs not under consideration: minister

Sindh Minister for Universities and Boards Ismail Rahoo has said the news that the provincial government is considering a proposal to appoint bureaucrats as vice chancellors to the varsities of the province was baseless.

In a statement issued on Friday, he said the news that the Sindh government was considering removing the requirement of PhD to become vice-chancellors of universities was baseless. “The appointment process of VCs will be held as per the Higher Education Policy rules under which any professor can become VC,” Rahoo said.

The minister said the conditions for becoming a professor are the same as the criteria set by the Universities and Boards Department for the appointment of VCs. For a VC candidate, the requirement of having a PhD is not being abolished, he emphasized. A day earlier, the Sindh chapter of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa) had strongly condemned the provincial government’s proposal to appoint bureaucrats as vice chancellors (VCs) of varsities in the province.

According to a statement issued by the association, the appointment of VCs should be done as per the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan’s rules. Fapuasa Sindh chapter president Prof Dr Shah Ali ul Qader said the association would stage a protest against the proposal if the government attempted to make it a policy. He claimed that the incompetent advisers of the Sindh government had no idea about higher education.