Who holds the key to solving KU’s persistent financial woes?
Karachi:November 19:The University of Karachi (KU) has been dealing with persistent financial constraints for a decade, not only affecting research and academic activities but also causing regular altercations between the KU administration and the faculty and other staff. What’s worse, the university’s finance department has lacked a finance director since December 2016.
“There’s no one to make budgetary arrangements to overcome the crisis,” said KU Vice-Chancellor Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan. “We can barely figure out how to pay the utility bills.” The grant that KU gets from the country’s Higher Education Commission (HEC) is around a third of the university’s aggregate annual budget. “We need some Rs7 billion to deal with the present situation.”
Dr Ajmal has written to Prime Minister Imran Khan to allocate a special grant for KU. “Last month, when Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Khan Afridi visited the VC office, I gave him the letter and am waiting for a positive reply.”
Breakdown
KU gets an annual grant of around Rs2 billion from the HEC and generates as much from its own resources. Last year, the Sindh government had revised the university’s budget from Rs100 million to Rs437 million. This year the varsity will be given Rs477 million and still be short of Rs2.523 billion.
The KU administration spends about Rs3.9 billion on non-developmental necessities, including incorporated compensations, annuities, pensions and medical allowances. Then there are developmental expenses like service charges, advertisements, installation of equipment and computers, furniture, transport, purchase of chemicals and papers, etc.
Outcome
Twenty-five research institutes work under KU and publish some 1,600 papers in nationally and internationally recognised research journals. “The number of papers can be increased to 16,000 if the federal and provincial governments increase our grants,” said the VC.
He said research fellows at the university lack essential facilities. A number of departments, particularly related to science, have stopped work at laboratories because they need chemicals, equipment and machinery, but they lack proper funding.
Finance director
In December 2016, the Karachi University Teachers Society (KUTS) had accused KU’s then finance director Tariq Kaleem of embezzlement, following which he was removed from the post. Since then a senior accountant has been working on the key position.
“The university needs an expert economist to manage our accounts and develop some effective strategies for funding,” said Dr Ajmal. “The Sindh government is responsible for appointing a competent officer as finance director. Until then, we can’t hope for better financial policies.”
Teachers’ demands
On top of the financial crisis, there is a great deal of pressure on the university administration from teachers’ representative bodies. “Employees frequently hold protests to demand a permanent solution to the delayed payment of their salaries and other dues,” said Dr Ajmal, “but they forget about KU’s money problems.”
KUTS President Dr Anila Amber Malik said the financial situation can’t be turned around until the university acquires hefty grants from the HEC, adding that the education commission issues a monthly grant instead of releasing yearly funds, which causes delays in the payment of salaries and allowances.
“We the teachers understand the university’s situation, but the senior officials need to take up the issue with the relevant authorities, as there are many weaknesses in the HEC’s funding policy.”
Dr Anila said the rate of enrolment at KU has been increasing, but the university’s budget has remained constant for the past many years, so the HEC should review its budget policy.
Students’ problems
Many students have complained that the university’s labs don’t have the latest apparatus, equipment and machinery. And the classrooms lack essential facilities like furniture and computers. Moreover, the libraries, including the central one, don’t acquire literature on current affairs and research journals.
Muhammad Adnan, a student at KU’s Department of Mass Communication, said that contemporary journalism makes use of modern technologies, so his department needs a modern studio and a digital workstation, but it lacks cameras, computers and other production equipment. “We have only an old campus radio, and nothing that can help us learn new journalistic methods.”
Tanzeela Mehmood of the biochemistry department said that she needs to spend more time in the laboratory in her final year, but all she can find at the lab are beakers, conical flasks, test tubes and other old stuff. “We need the most recent machines to conduct quality research, but our teachers aren’t upgrading the lab.”
The KUTS president also expressed concern over this. “Universities the world over have modern classrooms, labs and workstations, but KU’s teachers are forced to rely on traditional methods. We just don’t have the funds, which is why Pakistani institutes are rated low on the World University Rankings.”
Financial aid
In 2006, KU had set up the Students Financial Aid Office with the following motto: “No student should leave the university without a degree only because of financial crisis.”
It aimed to financially support disadvantaged students with the help of the HEC, government and donor agencies, philanthropist organisations and alumni associations. But the office is no longer effective and very few students get financial aid.
“We still receive applications from students, but only a few of them are provided support because of the university’s financial condition,” said KU spokesperson Muhammad Farooq.
The administration, however, is committed to overcoming the crisis. “The accounts section will be computerised soon. A survey is also under way to ascertain how many illegal residents are on campus, and then action will be taken against them without any discrimination.”
Farooq said electricity and water meters have been installed in the housing colony of the university, adding that the administration is also revising the procedure of fees and other payments. He hoped that these measures will help alleviate the situation to some extent.The news.
