PhD or administrative experience? Reevaluating the criteria for varsity VCs in Sindh

Dr Lubna Zaheer

Sindh’s public universities have been embroiled in protests over the past several days, as faculty members across the province voice their opposition to recent amendments in the Sindh Universities and Institutes Act 2018. The protests, which have disrupted academic activities, are a direct result of changes made to the process of appointing Vice-Chancellors at these institutions.

The proposal suggests that any senior government officer in grade 21 or 22 with four years of administrative experience will be eligible to apply for the position of Vice-Chancellor (VC) at a public university. For such candidates, a PhD is not required, but a relevant Master’s degree is mandatory. Engineering universities are exempt from this requirement. Additionally, any individual eligible to become a professor with four years of experience would also be eligible for the position of Vice-Chancellor.

Faculty members and their representative organizations have strongly objected to this proposed criterion. They argue that the amendment facilitates the appointment of bureaucrats and government officers as Vice-Chancellors. Their concern is that removing the PhD requirement for the leadership of universities will severely impact academic and research activities. Some have expressed concerns about how a non-PhD individual could understand academic matters, such as the Syndicate and other important academic bodies, complex issues related to scholarly research, and global rankings. There have also been claims that appointing a non-PhD individual as Vice-Chancellor would tarnish the university’s reputation. It has been demanded that only PhD-holding professors should be eligible for the position.

On the other hand, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has argued that public universities are on the brink of collapse. He pointed out that some Vice-Chancellors have been involved in sexual harassment and financial corruption. The Chief Minister has warned that Vice-Chancellors who incite or fuel protests will be held accountable. However, this stance appears unjustified. If certain Vice-Chancellors are involved in corruption or harassment, legal action should be taken against them. Whether the appointee is a bureaucrat or someone else, similar complaints can arise. The fact is, there is no logical basis for changing the process for appointing Vice-Chancellors solely based on financial corruption or harassment. A different rationale is needed.

Nonetheless, it is also difficult to support the notion that only a professor with teaching experience and a PhD can effectively manage the affairs of a university. If a non-PhD individual can competently manage administrative affairs in a provincial or federal ministry, why couldn’t they manage a university? Many competent and capable officers are present in our civil bureaucracy, just as there are both capable and corrupt faculty members in universities. Therefore, it is not possible to label one sector as entirely right or wrong.

The core issue here is that nearly all public universities in the country are facing financial losses. Many universities are unable to pay staff salaries and pensions on time. These universities often rely on the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan or seek external loans to survive. If a non-PhD individual could help a university overcome its financial crisis and become financially stable, what is the harm in appointing such a person? For example, a skilled economist could help a university emerge from financial hardship, and such a person should certainly be given the opportunity.

Objections have been raised regarding the necessity of having a PhD for the Vice-Chancellor position. Isn’t it well-known that many private and public universities in our country have become places where PhDs are bought? One can pay thousands of rupees in fees to acquire a PhD, which is then proudly displayed. It is argued that a Vice-Chancellor should have a strong understanding of academic research to promote scholarly activities. However, many faculty members are engaged in a frenzied race to publish research papers, with some publishing twenty or more articles a year. An official from the Ministry of Education once shared that a university professor had offered to publish fifteen or twenty articles under his name in a few months just to meet the Vice-Chancellorship requirement. So, is writing and completing a PhD, or publishing twenty research papers, such a difficult task that only professors are capable of doing it?

It is also being argued that appointing non-PhDs would damage the reputation of universities. However, I would argue that the reputation of our universities is already being tarnished by the global exposure of fraudulent research and plagiarism by some professors. We still remember cases of professors who held the position of Vice-Chancellor for years, only for their fake degrees and research papers to be exposed, even while they held senior positions in the Higher Education Commissions.

Nevertheless, I agree with Chief Minister Sindh's point that the current process for appointing Vice-Chancellors has resulted in a small group of names being recycled year after year. The situation is similar in other provinces as well. If a provincial Chief Minister wants to give new candidates a chance in the Vice-Chancellor appointment process, there should be no objection to that. During a conversation with an official from Sindh’s Ministry of Education, I learned that the proposed criterion would not only make non-PhDs eligible but also open the door for relatively junior professors with less administrative experience to become Vice-Chancellors.

This is not an unprecedented move as many developed countries have examples of non-academic individuals being appointed as leaders of universities. In the United States, for instance, renowned public universities such as Iowa and Purdue have had leaders with non-academic backgrounds. Similar examples can also be found in Europe. However, the debate continues regarding the practical impact of having a leader with a teaching or non-teaching background.

Let this discussion also take place in Pakistan, along with this new experiment. It is crucial that the Sindh government, or any provincial government, conducts this experiment with the well-being of the universities in mind and aims for reform rather than nepotism or favouritism. If the Sindh government opens the doors of universities to individuals with non-academic backgrounds, it should also open those doors to individuals with academic backgrounds. Chief Minister Sindh should involve intelligent professors in his government and advisory circles, as is done in other countries. It would be wonderful if the Sindh government undertook this experiment as well.

-- The writer is a professor and analyst specializing in media and communication studies. She can be reached at lubna.zaheer91@gmail.com

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