ISLAMABAD - The teaching faculty of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) has expressed displeasure over Higher Education Commissions stance that it will not recognise the PhD degrees, which do not fulfil quality criteria and the development funding of the institutions violating the criteria would also be curtailed. In this regard, a meeting of Academic Staff Association (ASA) of QAU held the other day where the members of the body passed a resolution that all the PhD theses submitted so far, should be processed without further delay whether anyone passed the GRE or not. The professors condemned the HECs threatening letter that the funds of the university would not be released if it did not follow the quality criteria for the award of PhD and MPhil degrees. In order to deliberate on this issue with HEC, the teaching faculty also constituted a 7-member committee. The members of the association agreed on the point that there must be a uniform rule for all the departments. It is unfair, discriminatory and against human rights that the students of some departments had to pass the GRE test for PhD admission while the other had to pass the test developed by their own departments. Anybody can go to a court of law and challenge it and we should not indulge in such things which can invoke suo motu action just to please educational bureaucracy sitting in HEC, said a faculty member. If the departments are asked to design their own tests, then most of the departments not having designed the entry tests will have to start it from scratch. If university accepts the HEC proposal for the sake of argument, then a vacuum will be created in the university leading to chaos and there will be no admissions in many departments. One of the members said that although the GRE International was only available in 5 subjects and remaining departments have to take their own tests but opposition by non-affectee departments prove that they are in principle against the GRE because according to them it is against the promotion of higher education in the country. He criticised those faculty members who were saying that faculty members oppose GRE just because HEC will pay them Rs5,000 per student. Another member pointed out that most of the faculty members do not have PhD students with HEC scholarships so no money factor was involved in it. He further elaborated that it was just a false and fabricated propaganda. Another professor said if GRE were implemented on the universities then only those students belonging to elite class would benefit while those with humble background, especially from less developed area will be left out. They said that if the GRE was such a panacea, why all the universities of the world including many in USA and all in Europe did not opt for it. One participant quoting his experience said that there was no link between research and GRE. He said that ASA would raise voice against the Higher Education Commissions stance that it would not recognise the PhD degrees, which do not fulfil quality criteria and the development funding of the institutions violating the criteria would also be curtailed.