Few university leaders are dynamic enough to develop plan to generate additional revenue for their institutions
Just like there is always the right tool for every job, there is a right person for every position, someone who possesses the skills and experience necessary to address the challenges of the job at that time
The main issue facing the majority of Pakistan’s public universities at the moment is maintaining their financial viability (Ayesha Razzaque, “Universities and the financial tightrope,” The News, June 6, 2024).
Many universities are months behind on paying their existing staff and retirees. Financial contributions from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) that allowed many public universities to cover expenses saw drastic cuts last year. That gave the HEC leverage to push requirements onto universities, such as the one where only someone holding a PhD can be appointed university vice-chancellors (VCs).
The scoring criteria of applicants contain many of the same metrics used for academic promotions, like publications counts, which means that in almost all cases, only academics qualified for the position of VC. Domestic academia has been trained to maximise those gameable and highly problematic metrics employing various schemes, something people have been writing about for years.
Compounding the damage further, VC search committees rely in large part on those same imperfect metrics to rank applicants for VC positions. The result is a small pool of (usually connected) candidates who are playing musical chairs with VC offices in universities across the country, preferably in a tier-1 city.
The accomplishments of VCs so selected have little relevance to the problems their institutions face. Few university leaders are dynamic enough to develop a plan to generate additional lines of revenue for their institutions, raise the value proposition of their programs for students, and create a governance structure that is more inclusive of student voices (Ayesha Razzaque, ‘Leading without a plan’, The News, August 21, 2023). Fewer still succeed. Most carry on with business as usual: demanding the release of more public funds. The nature of challenges faced by universities is such that academics may not have the skills to tackle them.
All this is to say that there is a dire need to grow the pool of talent that can be considered for appointment of VCs and open the search process to people without PhDs; amend the search criteria to search not for ‘accomplished’ academics but ones that understand the context an institution operates in and have the skill set to address their specific challenges; and ensure VC search committees comprise of people that are familiar with the institution and are not stuffed with some far-away bureaucrats unfamiliar and unaffiliated with the institution, as is presently the case. This package of suggestions is not new, and I am not the only one who has made them.
Perhaps because federal funding for universities has dried up and the HEC’s leverage weakened, the Sindh CM recently expressed his intention to amend the Sindh Universities and Institutes Laws Act 2018 to enable the appointment of bureaucrats and people not holding a PhD to VC positions. Publicly, the justification given is frustration with how difficult it is to remove VCs accused of wrongdoing from office, the implied conclusion being that bureaucrats in Sindh never indulge in wrongdoing.
The specific mention of bureaucrats in the amendment suggests that this is not about growing the talent pool of eligibles who can be appointed VCs with relevant track records and skill sets, that can restore value and credibility to the qualifications they award, diversify revenue lines, make investments, and do not fear bringing some transparency to their operations. Instead, it might be as simple as creating cushy landing spots for favoured and gratefully pliant individuals.
Bills expanding the bureaucracy’s turf are often slow pushed by it and it is not a question of if this amendment will pass but when. It is a bastardisation of the recommendations made above.
Since this news became public, faculty members have been protesting and the HEC has sent a letter to the CM of Sindh that has since become public, expressing its concern and disapproval of Sindh contemplating appointing bureaucrats and non-PhD holders as VCs. The letter cites guidelines dating back to 2007, invoked “reverence” and “veneration” for the office of VC, and that it would “[negatively] affect academic freedom and critical thinking”. I am not sure what that exactly means given that the prevailing state of academic freedom and critical thinking in public universities leaves much to be desired.
Inevitably, a few days later, in public remarks at the fourth Research and Technology Showcase 2025, the Sindh CM struck back, effectively making the point that if the HEC no longer provides financial support to Sindh’s universities, the province will do as it sees fit. He has a point; Sindh has been matching every Rs100 it receives from the federal government for higher education with Rs185 from its own budget. This is the highest among all provinces, comparing favourably against Balochistan (Rs76), Punjab (Rs6), and KP (Rs0).
If Sindh indeed goes ahead with the proposed changes, one thing will be certain: for better or for worse, Sindh will be charting its own course for its public universities. It does remove a key hurdle standing in the way of appointing people who can lead universities through the challenges that have little to do with academic prowess. But will it use that freedom to find and appoint the right people, or will it misuse it the way discretion often is?
The failure of imagination displayed in the inability to think beyond appointing bureaucrats does not inspire confidence. Going forward, the successes of its universities will be its to claim and their failures will be its to bear. There will be no more barriers in the way of Sindh appointing the right man or woman for the job. The question is: will it?
