UNIVERSITIES are organizations where highly educated people perform teaching and research tasks and various stakeholders benefit from it including society. We assume that the well-established infrastructure of universities is sufficient for quality education, it is one of the requirements but the whole eco-system is composed of various institutional structures that operate in a systematic way for achieving departmental and institutional objectives mentioned in the Act/Charter of the University. Universities are established to provide access to quality higher education to large group populations. After introduction of Blended and Online Learning same programs may be offered to more students without relocation, transportation, and other relevant costs. It appears ideal on paper; however, it involves different administrative, finance, and academic sections of the University to carry out all these teaching and learning activities. A department is the main entity where all academic and research activities are carried out, for this University needs to fulfil all requirements for faculty, classrooms, laboratories (equipment, chemicals, etc.), library (books, journals, newspaper, etc.), furniture, audio-video tools, and sufficient staff as per University rules.
The University Rules and Regulations should include all mandatory recommendations of the Government, HEC, relevant councils, international bodies, etc. To govern a university successfully, they need to operationalize activities in the light of the structure provided in the Act or Charter. All policies of HEC and other regulators need to be approved by relevant forums and these may be implemented in letter and spirit. In case proper homework is not done for approvals i.e. all possible scenarios are not assessed, then a clarification for an individual case is issued by the University. Same is copied by other Universities, and a few more queries surface, and a chain reaction starts without realizing that it is breaking the fabric of the institution. By shifting responsibility to HEC or other organizations, the various stakeholders start a blame game. Even in some cases where Universities can relax or consider appeals of students or faculty on medical, natural, or humanitarian grounds through their academic and administrative structures, are referred to HEC. It is not able to decide any such appeal due to a lack of information and evidence.
As the faculty is the main stakeholder identified by the Task Force for Higher Education in 2002, the appointment and promotion matter of faculty need to be conducted by the Universities on time. In this regard, HEC minimum guidelines are to be followed in terms of qualification, publication, and experience. It is observed that Universities have not raised any additional standards of their own in the above parameters. Whenever there is a conflict, they immediately refer to HEC which may only be consulted for clarification purposes, not for decision purposes. Faculty grievance mechanisms should be in place as well as for students, faculty, and employees. HEC rarely receives any such issues from the private sector or highly ranked institutions; one may conclude that these are governed in a better manner, or they are busy in teaching, research, and other relevant tasks or they will be fired/expelled if complained?
The satisfaction of faculty is linked with handsome salaries, accommodation, medical and provision of transport facilities, etc. Universities with effective financial management systems and with no or zero leakages can only retain quality faculty members. Universities with limited financial resources or poor financial management usually rely on contractual, visiting, or faculty on daily wages, who lack ownership and are less interested. The total reliance on ad hoc faculty members destroys the teaching and learning environment in the University. Such faculty members spend only a few hours in the classroom and resultantly, student interaction is very limited on campus. In a case, if there are permanent or dedicated faculty in the University, then sometimes a lack of research opportunities compels them to start investing their time in other activities like estate, stock, sale & purchase of vehicles, etc. just to be named a few. The faculty and students would love to work at the University where basic infrastructure requirements are met. It is observed that buildings once built are not maintained for years. The situation worsens when no one is ready to be accountable for their task and blames previous authorities, political, regional and other factors for bad or no performance. If the top-level management starts such a narrative, then every institutional structure will sing the same song. The capitalist approach has eroded all inspirational, ethical and moral values from our institutions. We can recover from the current situation through consistent, collective, collaborative and composed efforts in all disciplines of life.
—The writer is Director at Higher Education Commission, Islamabad.
