— Protest scheduled outside HEC headquarters on March 15 in case new policy not rolled back
ISLAMABAD: As the sudden revision of fund policy by Higher Education Commission (HEC) has put a question mark over the future of professors of public sector universities, over 5000 teachers including Assistant Professors, Associate Professors and Professors have decided to stage protests in Islamabad on March 15, 2023.
Dr Noman Khan, Information secretary of All Pakistan Tenure Track Faculty Association (APTTA), a representative body of Tenure Track System (TTS) faculty across Pakistan, has informed that here on Saturday that the association has decided to gather outside Higher Education Commission (HEC) on March 15, 2023 to protest against the HEC’s new policy which according to the professors would ultimately ruin their future.
Through the new funding policy, HEC has informed all universities it will not be able to fund any new TTS program while capping the funding for existing TTS faculty which too merged with the recurrent budget of universities. The HEC has cited financial /grants constraints as the reason behind damaging its own indigenous program of TTS started in 2003, under which the highly qualified PhD teachers were given attractive packages in public universities while shouldering a considerable portion of salary and perks of these teachers.
As compared to the basic pay scale (BPS) system, the recruited faculty under TTS were considered a successful program of HEC in terms of promoting research, development and advanced studies in the universities.
As per the association, non-rhythmic, myopic, and irrational policies of HEC have become a challenge for the university teachers who were meant to solve the country’s issues through the production of scholars in diverse socioeconomic fields.
As a result of the HEC’s new notification, the local management at universities has started putting their policies into practice while stopping new hiring on TTS. The universities’ management are now telling those who have already been hired to switch from TTS to the pay scales proposed by different universities. A state of unrest among the faculty is prevailing because the new pay scales will compromise TTS annual increments, performance-based increments, and performance-based honorarium.
APTTA informs that recent TTS funding policy notifications from HEC have confirmed the idea that the commission has stopped caring about higher education and is now just watching as higher education in the country falls apart because they are no longer going to patronize the TTS, a system that was introduced, promoted, and is now demoted by HEC itself.
APTTA, which is an association of PhD doctors serving in universities all over the country, has asked HEC to review these notifications and make viable and productive policies. After the notification was made public, the countrywide university management came up with their own opinions about what it meant and began working on policies to convert the TTS faculty to some questionable pay scales so that HEC’s malignant designs could be carried out.
“This is because most of the policies made by the current chairman of HEC and his team are based on hypothetical arguments that are made up without thinking about how they will affect higher education in the country or what the worst effects will be for our beloved country,” President APTTA, Dr. Yasar Shah said.
He has also warned HEC to withdraw this notification, or else university teachers will be knocking on HEC’s doors to wake up their sleeping consciences and minds.
According to him the worst form of an adversary appears when your protector becomes your detractor. The same is being done by Chairman HEC and his incompetent team for the devolution of higher education in Pakistan, a country where economic turmoil has already endangered the economic existence of the state.
He announced that incessant demonstrations and sit-ins will be staged outside HEC on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, and will continue until HEC withdraw the current notifications and ensure to issue future notifications in consultation with APTTA.
