BZU Vice Chancellor Dr Tahir Amin has said that the Lahore campus of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) has been set up without fulfilling formalities.

The public-private partnership model, he said, proved to be an absolute failure as the private sector invested in education to get maximum profit from it.

“The private sector invests in education with different motives.  They want to maximise profit. The owners of BZU Lahore campus have minted billion of rupees in the name of varsity,” the BZU VC said in an exclusive interview with APP.

He said he had visited the Lahore campus as a member of the committee constituted by the Higher Education Department and was shocked to see that it had seven faculties with 13 departments being run by only three retired professors.

“For seven faculties, you should have the same number of deans,” he added.

The campus, he said, was working as a full-fledged varsity offering certain courses like physiotherapy. How could a campus award a degree with unaccredited programmes, which even the BZU itself did not offer, he questioned.

To a question about class-based education system, Dr Tahir Amin replied that it was a gigantic and very crucial issue for which the government should devise a comprehensive, modern and up-to-date policy to standardise the system.

“We need to make a comprehensive national policy to merge all streams into a single system,” he added.

To another question on improving ranking of the BZU, the VC said good faculty was key to everything. He would bring the varsity faculty back which was abroad for higher studies.

“We have 52 per cent shortage of faculty at the BZU. We need highly qualified PhD faculty for social sciences, gender studies and other departments. We will meet deficiency by creating a conducive environment and improving ranking of the varsity.”

Amin suggested that the government should invest 10 per cent of the country’s total gross domestic product in education for a decade to put the sector on way to progress.

The VC said he had taken big decisions like restructuring  of distance Learning programme, rotation of heads or chairmen of departments etc. In next six months, there would be visible changes in the varsity, he added.

About former registrar Malik Munir Hussain, he said a committee had been constituted in this connection and its report would be tabled in the next syndicate meeting for taking an action against him under the PEEDA Act.