Jawad Ullah<\/p>\n
If Economy is the bloodline of a nation, higher education is the lungs. Unfortunately Higher education in Pakistan never got the attention of the leadership. They neither made policies that can strengthen Pakistan\u2019s higher education nor fed our higher education with enough economic resources. Most of the universities in Pakistan are unable to pay its employees. While on the other hand the budget of a single university is in the developed world is higher than the whole budget of HEC Pakistan.
\nFaculty in Universities is divided in to two different categories, BPS and TTS. TTS has a time scale promotion however it did not have any social security. BPS has social security however it doesn\u2019t have a clear promotion policy. The result is an uneven development of both systems. For promotion in BPS a faculty member has to apply for a post advertized and then compete in the open market with other applicants, which is a fresh appointment in a university. This has made the faculty member vulnerable in terms of promotion to the next level.
\nThe eligibility criteria for promotion in Pakistani universities have given birth to \u2018fake\u2019 research culture in Pakistan. The black market \u2018journals\u2019 mushroomed over the years which publish low quality research for the sake of money. It has been observed that \u2018journal gangs\u2019 emerged which charge researchers for \u2018their\u2019 work up to 200,000 in x category. These journals are owned by member of black sheep in academia as well as HEC. Along with that the research projects are also awarded to the blue eyed children. This matter also need be addressed properly for the development of good research culture in Pakistan.
\nFor promotion to the next level back door channels are mostly utilized to secure ones position. In some cases a faculty member will not be promoted because he\/ she are in competition with the \u2018supervisee\u2019 of the external member of the selection board. This also pushed VCs to take two faculty members to do justice with his faculty member. This results in burden on the university treasury on the one hand and decreasing space for promotion of other faculty members in line on the other. Sometimes political leadership also does the \u2018blessings\u2019. Due to lack of funds in the universities the VCs have to \u2018honor\u2019 the recommendations of political leadership as well. It has been observed that some members of bureaucracy are also involved and utilize their resources and influence the decision makers in syndicate and senate of a university.
\nIn modern day higher education is moving towards an inter-disciplinary approach where knowledge is drawn from many other disciplines like Political Science cannot be taught without touching the borders of IR, sociology and so on. However in the existing promotion policy there is no room for inter-disciplinary approach. It not only weakens our higher education system but erase space for competent scholarship to promote to the next level. Cases have been observed in different universities across the country where a lecturer in Political Science, who has done his MPhil or PhD in some other discipline of social sciences like History or IR, cannot be appointed as Assistant Professor Political Science because of \u201cirrelevant\u201d degree.
\nThe process of promotion is also very lengthy. It cast time and valuable human resources of universities as well. It goes through many stages from creating space through F&PC to syndicate it requires a couple of years. In many cases faculty members cross sixty unless and until this process is completed.
\nOn the other hand TTS faculty has a time scale promotion policy where within a decade a faculty member becomes a Professor. In this whole process the Departmental Track Review Committee report plays a vital role. It has been observed that DTRC members are \u2018chosen\u2019 guys with close relations with the TTS faculty member reviewed. To cross the score limit required for a TTS faculty member, TTS faculty mostly consult the \u2018journal gang\u2019 as will for fake publications in back date. Although TTS and BPS are two separate systems, however, it occupies positions of BPS faculty as Associate professors and Professors. In many cases the supervisees has surpassed his supervisor and became professors while his supervisors are still assistant professors. And it is also absorbed that in the near future BPS faculty will suffer badly in terms of promotion.
\n It is time for HEC to review its promotion policy in universities not only for faculty but administrative staff as well. The future of BPS faculty, which contributes 60% of research done in Pakistan and shares almost 80% of teaching work load, is at stake. HEC must act now to save higher education in Pakistan.
\nThe author teaches at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jawad Ullah If Economy is the bloodline of a nation, higher education is the lungs. Unfortunately Higher education in Pakistan never got the attention of the leadership. They neither made policies that can strengthen Pakistan\u2019s higher education nor fed our higher education with enough economic resources. Most of the universities in Pakistan are unable to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-243426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n