HEC and FUUAST are involved in a Dispute
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Sciences, and Technology (FUUAST) have been at odds over two conflicting reports concerning the hiring procedure for academic personnel. Both organizations have insisted that their version of events is accurate.
Recently, the HEC released a study highlighting further inconsistencies at the university and raising questions about the FUUAST instructor appointment procedure. In response, the public university has accused HEC of misrepresenting data on student enrollment, the total number of teaching staff hired, and the number of teachers appointed under the Selection Board of 2021. This was stated in a separate report presented at a meeting presided over by President Dr. Arif Alvi, the Chancellor of FUUAST.
“There has been manipulation of the information and facts our university submitted to the HEC. Significant differences in their inquiry approach have been observed. For example, the investigative committee mistakenly included among the teaching faculty people who received employment offers but did not enroll in the university. Furthermore, a top professor at FUUAST questioned, “most of their enrollment conclusions are based on data from the Karachi campus only, forgetting that the Islamabad campus exists as well.”
The FUUAST response report claims that in addition to providing inaccurate data on enrollment and faculty numbers, the HEC also provided false information about the number of students and faculty at each of the university’s campuses in Karachi and Islamabad, with 14,442 students and 263 teachers in Karachi and 4,103 students and 98 teachers in Islamabad.
Former Vice Chancellor of FUUAST and penman of the response report, Dr. Muhammad Ziauddin, responded to the HEC’s manipulation of figures by saying, “We had shared the complete data on enrolment and teaching staff with the HEC team, but despite this, the data given by us was not included in the report.”
According to the HEC assessment, several departments’ selection boards had only one subject specialist present rather than two. The university report responded to this issue by claiming that the HEC had attempted to deceive the authorities because the selection committee’s quorum was four members, and only one subject specialist was required to participate—two members were not required.
In addition, the HEC investigative team stated in their report that certain candidates were not given enough time to speak by the selection committee. “A candidate’s competence level determines how much time they are allotted during the interview. In response to the assertion, Dr. A.Q. Mughal, a member of the selection board, shot back. “If the candidate knows the answers to basic questions, then the board does not ask them additional questions.” Furthermore, the HEC advised in its report to annul the 2021 selection results; yet FUUAST declined to consider the HEC’s abrupt objection, stating that it is unlawful to object to the selection process after more than a year has passed.
“Those who come under scrutiny for their wrongdoings are known to elicit similar responses,” stated Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairman of the Higher Education Commission, in response to The Express Tribune’s allegations of misrepresentation made by FUUAST. It is now necessary for us to make difficult choices about this university.”