LAHORE – The Search Committee tasked with the selection of public sector university vice chancellors (VC) is going to start interviews of around 50 applicants who applied for the position of VCs in six varsities of the country at Civil Secretariat from today.
Punjab Higher Education Department (HED) Secretary Haseeb Ather told Pakistan Today that the search committee would complete interviews by March 31. Another HED official said the department fulfilled all legal requirements after advertising for the posts and short-listed the candidates without discrimination and would select them purely on merit.
The official said while short-listing the candidates from a list of 235, HED did not consider those against whom there were complaints of corruption. The six public sector universities are Government College University, Lahore; University of Education, Lahore; University of Sargodha; Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan; Lahore College for Women University; and Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi.
The seats at these public sector universities have been lying vacant for several months. Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Pro Chancellor Syed Babar Ali heads the Search Committee consisting of additional chief secretary Sami Saeed; UET Lahore Vice-Chancellor Muhammad Akram Khan, Higher Education Secretary Haseeb Athar and Beaconhouse National University Vice-Chancellor Sartaj Aziz.
Ather said several candidates have applied for more than one VC seat He, however, said that the committee would give a choice to the applicants regarding their appointment. An HED official, who asked not to be named, said that of the 235 applicants, 42 were women. He said 50 candidates were short-listed on the basis of their research work and academic achievements. He said the committee preferred those candidates who had a foreign PhD and an extraordinary academic background.
He said the applicants having foreign Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhDs were being awarded extra marks unlike those in possession of local degrees. He said a total of 100 marks had been set for selection and those securing maximum marks were scrutinized and short listed for interview. Dilating on the classification of marks, he said 30 marks had been set for qualification, 30 for experience and 40 for interview.
The Search Committee has been following the same formula for awarding marks to the candidates for several years now. Complaints: He said that HED received a number of complaints against the applicants with regard to their involvement in academic corruption. He said HED avoided putting such candidates’ names in the final list to ensure transparency.
He said that a religio-political group tried to influence the selection as it wanted to get a Punjab University Dean appointed as University of Education (UOE) VC, but his application was rejected because there were complaints of corruption and sexual harassment of female colleagues against him.
