First female VC of GCU Lahore appointed in 160 years

Lahore: In an unusual step, the Punjab government has appointed Professor Dr. Shazia Bashir as the Acting Vice-Chancellor of Government College University (GCU), Lahore.

According to the media report, Professor Dr. Shazia Bashir has been serving in GCU Lahore since 1996. Before that, she was the Dean of Mathematics and Physical Sciences Department. He did M.Phil from University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore and PhD from Technical University of Vienna, Austria.

As Director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Physics and Institute of Physics and Chairperson of the Department of Physics, she has contributed significantly to research in the field, with over 150 research papers published in reputed international journals.

She has been appointed by Governor Punjab Baligh-ur-Rehman for a period of four months or till appointment of regular Vice Chancellor. Faculty, staff and students have welcomed this historic appointment.

However, the appointment comes at a time when there is a leadership crisis in Punjab's public sector universities, with at least 29 institutions currently functioning without permanent vice-chancellors, leading to many academic and administrative problems.

The Higher Education Department (HED) looks after the affairs of 34 government universities of the province. The term of permanent vice-chancellors in 22 universities is expiring 1.5 years early and the term of four others is ending about six months before, while the Vice chancellors are also to be appointed in three new government universities.

The lack of permanent leadership has raised concerns among academic staff associations of universities, who believe that the absence of permanent vice-chancellors is affecting the quality of teaching and research in universities.

In many universities of the province, the most important posts including vice chancellors, registrars, treasurers and controllers of examinations are lying vacant.