Islamabad, Sept 20: The vice-chancellors of 71 public universities are threatening to resign and lock up their institutions in protest against drastic budgetary cuts in tertiary education by the government. Ironically, this sector had until recently seen allocations rising from millions to billions of rupees within five years of the constitution of the Higher Education Commission in 2002. But even then there was criticism that the enhancement was made at the expense of primary and secondary education and to the neglect of technical and vocational education. Although the crunch in funding became evident after the current government came into power in 2008, the recent floods have shifted budgetary priorities even more. Increased demands for more effective spending have made it difficult to justify funding this sector on the scale of recent years.
All this, however, is not to sideline the importance of knowledge and the contribution of higher education to Pakistan's development. But with the squeeze in public funding, the HEC ought to look into ways of economising on costs while our universities should consider adopting alternative methods of income generation through, for instance, public-private partnerships as is done in other countries. The government has suggested the formation of a multi-agency committee, which will include vice-chancellors, to find solutions to the financial problems of our universities. Whatever the course of action it decides on, it should not have a negative fallout on the less privileged. Our public universities should continue to remain accessible to the under-privileged. Until these universities can generate most of their income on their own and thus prove less dependent on public grants, it should be the government's responsibility to continue to allocate as much as it can to higher education. The future health and viability of our universities depends on the cooperative effort of all concerned in successfully overcoming the financial crunch.
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