Islamabad - The delay in promotions of teaching faculty, hired under the tenure track system (TTS), of Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) is causing discontent among the employees who are critical of Higher Education Commission (HEC) for its repeated refusals to accede to their promotions.
Around 30 TTS teaching faculty members have been waiting for their promotions from grade 19 to 20 and 21 for the past one year, as the decision of two Departmental Promotion boards has been pending for endorsement by the Syndicate - the highest decision making body of the university - and HEC.
“I have been working as assistant professor for the last seven years. I should have been promoted as associate professor two years ago,” complained one of the faculty members affected by the delay.
Most of the faculty members hired on TTS are foreign qualified and if the apathy of the high-ups remains to continue at one of the country’s leading institute of higher learning, they would definitely weigh options of serving aboard where they can get better packages, he said.
The issue invites variant viewpoints so the amended rules of the university are not approved, maintained HEC Director Media Ayesha Ikram.
“Universities have made some changes themselves and finance and audit departments don’t agree to those changes; however, the HEC is trying to fix the issue.”
But many faculty members believe that HEC is delaying the matter because of a couple of faculty members whose cases were withheld and not endorsed by the promotion board. They feel that things are being deliberately delayed and it seems that the HEC officials have some hidden agenda, as TTS promotion cases are always processed following the same rules.
The promotions are already two to three years late and after the endorsements by the selection board the HEC is delaying the matter, remarked another TTS faculty member.
A committee has been formed to negotiate with HEC for the clearance of backlog of endorsements and follow the same rules for endorsement of the next cases.
The Academic Staff Association (ASA) of the university had also censured the HEC in its general body meeting held on October 28 last. The faculty members expressed grave concern over the attitude of HEC and categorically said that the HEC did not want to open the delayed cases.
“The HEC is not only violating our statutes but also violating its own documents. However, the HEC doesn’t bring it in writing so that it couldn’t be held accountable for being against law,” the ASA decried.