Once known as one of the best institutions of South Asia, Government College University’s (GCU) 27 departments are working without heads or deans while there are only eight professors teaching a student body of over 7,000, Pakistan Today learnt on Sunday.
There are only eight professors working at the GCU while most of the teachers running various departments are assistant professors which is against GCU Ordinance 2002.
Source inside the GCU said among 74 public sector universities of the country, GCU was the only university that was seriously facing the issues of senior faculty and according to them it was due to the poor policies of former administration that had forced the senior teachers to leave institutions. Functioning without deans or heads, 27 departments that are offering masters programme are being unofficially controlled by assistant professors which is against the university’s constitution.
DEGREE WILL BE A JOKE: “If this issue is not looked into, the degree given by GCU would turn into a joke,” a GCU official said, adding that GCU’s English department that was once the best had only one professor. “Same is the case for Zoology and Botany. Both these departments have only one professor each,” he said adding “the remaining two of the total eight professors are in the Chemistry and Persian departments. Two of them are retiring next month which means we will be left with six professors only.” “There are around 7,000 students studying in the GCU and the faculty will soon have only six professors which is a shame,” he added. “Majority of the teachers are assistant professors and lecturers and the most surprising thing is that they are supervising PhD and MPhil students,” he said, adding “the university does not have a permanent registrar and the controller examination and treasure are retired officials.”
GOVERNMENT IS RESPONSIBLE: “It is due to the ignorance of the Punjab government that things have gone so bad,” GCU ASA President Dr Hassan Ali Shah said while talking to Pakistan Today, adding “even though there is no dean or head of departments, the varsity’s VC is out of the country which shows the non-seriousness of the administration.”
