Author Topic: HEC eligibility criteria contains 'unfair conditions'  (Read 1323 times)

Offline AKBAR

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HEC eligibility criteria contains 'unfair conditions'
« on: June 04, 2010, 12:33:02 PM »
HEC eligibility criteria contains 'unfair conditions'

Islamabad, June 04: President Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Associations Professor Mahr Saeed Akhtar has asked the Higher Education Commission to defer its plans of rejecting pre-PhD teaching experience for appointments of professors and associate professors in the public-sector universities after June 30 for 10 years and do not reject publications in non-HEC approved journals.

Dr Mahr, who is also President of Academic Staff Association, Punjab University, was addressing a press conference at the National Press Club here on Thursday.

The briefing was part of the movement FAPUASA announced to launch in the wake of callous attitude of HEC. He said in the next three days FAPUASA will hold separate press conferences in all major cities of the country.

Flanked by office-bearers of FAPUASA and other universities, Prof. Mahr said, "We talked with rationality and respect, but in the wake of continued HEC lethargy, we have called a general body meeting after the semester exams in June to decide future course of action."

He said that new eligibility criteria imposed by HEC contained unfair conditions forcing even senior faculty to protest. He regretted imposition of new conditions with retrospective effect. He said that HEC did not present our suggestions before its meeting despite promise. He pointed out that from July all the teaching experience before doing PhD will become a useless burden for the faculty.

He said, "We accepted HEC condition of increasing the number of articles for promotion but the HEC with one stroke rejected all articles, which did not appear in its favoured journals even if those were published much before the birth of HEC."

He condemned the imposition of International GRE in eight subjects. "It is not only unfair but also an effort to stall the development and research in the country," he declared. He said that GRE issue is hampering research and development in the country. He asked for grant for all non-PhD teachers in the public sector universities for doing PhD without any precondition.

He thanked Sindh University VC for up-grading 91 stuck up cases and asked other VCs to follow the suit.

Dr. Fida Muhammad, President of the Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa chapter of the Federation, said that if the Higher Education or Ministry of Finance are facing economic crunch, the Tenure Track System can be abolished. He said that TTS has created friction, division and unrest in the faculty all over the campuses. He said that instead of cutting the research and development funds of the universities, the hefty amount being paid for TTS be saved and transferred to development projects. He said that there should be uniformity and non-discrimination amongst the faculty.

He appreciated the Punjab government for increasing MPhil and PhD allowances and demanded ending this disparity by bringing it at par with all provinces. He strongly condemned the barbaric Israeli attack on Freedom Flotilla and kidnapping of Pakistani journalists including Talat Hussain.