BAHAWALPUR-The Islamia University of Bahawalpur said it prioritised the hiring of PhD degree holders during the last two years and recruited 128 faculty members including professors, associate professors and assistant professors.
Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Qaiser Mushtaq during a meeting of senior officials at his office reviewed various administrative matters. He said that also the non-teaching departments at the university lacked professionals especially key administrative posts were being run on additional charge. The university recruited professionals on merit through widely circulated advertisements across the country.
Scrutiny and processing of 46,000 applications for non-teaching posts pending since 2013 were conducted. As many as 562 staff members long delayed promotions were promoted to next grade as only 73 employees were promoted previously, he said.
“The conduct of 9 mega selection boards in a period of two years is also a record in university’s history as there were only five selection boards held during previous three years. There were no board of faculties in the IUB, these boards were established and regular meetings were organised during these two year,” he said. The university also followed Punjab government’s recruitment policies for disabled persons and deceased employees, around 23 special persons and 50 widows or close relatives of decreased staff members, he said.
The university also hired PhDs through HEC’s Interim Placement of Fresh PhDs Programme to boost research activities, he said. In this way, 1,258 persons were hired and promoted purely on merit in both teaching and non-teaching departments, he claimed. The university also focused on training and development of employees and for the first time organised training sessions in collaboration with the Federal Education Ministry, Higher Education Commission and Punjab Higher Education Commission, he said.
The federal and provincial governments as well as educational circles have hailed the university’s efforts for ensuring merit-based recruitments. Due to these steps, the HEC has recently declared IUB on 6th position in 21 universities of Punjab for winning research grants. The university is currently on 11th position in general ranking of universities.