Author Topic: Academicians oppose University of Peshawar restructuring  (Read 1546 times)

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Academicians oppose University of Peshawar restructuring
« on: September 02, 2009, 01:02:13 PM »
Academicians oppose University of Peshawar restructuring

PESHAWAR: Heads of various departments of the University of Peshawar (UoP) and Peshawar University Teachers Association (PUTA) Tuesday expressed serious concern over the restructuring of the varsity and urged the administration either to get the decision approved from the relevant bodies or do away with it.

The PUTA office-bearers and department heads met at PUTA Hall with PUTA President Dr Arbab Khan Afridi in the chair. The meeting decided to call on the vice-chancellor of the university and inform him of their concern. The meeting with the vice-chancellor would be held today (Wednesday) at 9 a.m., an office-bearer of PUTA told The News.

The university issued two separate notifications some two weeks ago, merging 13 departments of the university into six institutions. New directors were appointed for the institutions and the heads of the departments were relieved.

The Departments of Seerat Studies, Arabic and Islamiyat were merged and were to be called the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Studies. The Persian and Urdu departments were merged into the Institute of Urdu and Persian Language and literature. The Pashto Academy and Department of Pashto were merged into the Centre of Pashto Language and Literature.

The Departments of Electronics and Physics would be called the Institute of Electronic and Physics after their merger. The Departments of Sociology, Social Work and Gender Studies have been merged as the Institute of Social Development Studies and the Departments of Archaeology and Anthropology have been merged and were to be called Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology.

The participants of the meeting were of the opinion that the decision was against the statutes of the university, as it had not been approved by any of the statutory bodies of the institution.

If the decision was necessary, it should be implemented in all the 48 departments of the university after proper approval from the relevant institutions. A few departments should not be picked and chosen for the purpose, they said.

They said it was the mandate of the academic council, senate and syndicate of the university to take such a decision but these bodies have been bypassed while taking the restructuring decision.

The last meeting of the academic council was held some six months ago and the syndicate met three months back. Therefore, approval for these concerned quarters is out of question, a participant said.

He added that the syndicate in its previous meeting three-months back had appointed chairmen for all the departments and now all of them are relieved.

Sources told The News that the university administration had asked the heads of all the 13 departments to hand over all powers, assets and resources to the newly appointed directors.

One of the worst affected departments by the decision is that of Gender Studies, an official of the department said. Set up about five years ago, the department has so far shown excellent performance despite limited resources. The department by the nature of its work needs to function independently so that it could have liaison with its partners and stakeholders freely, the official added.

The official said the decision of merger of the department was against the multiple national and international commitments that Pakistan was signatory such as CEDAW, which were geared towards gender equality and mainstreaming of gender in all walks of life.
 THE NEWS