Neglected NED needs Nawaz’s nurturing
Karachi : 16 August : The NED University of Engineering and Technology is facing huge financial crisis, as the university is under the deficit of Rs 17 million just after getting the recent grant from the Higher Education Commission (HEC), The Nation has learnt.
“The varsity administration wants the prime minister to intervene into the matter so the country’s foremost engineering establishment can be saved from disaster, as the HEC and the Sindh government have failed to address this issue,” sources said.
“The new administration has decided to increase in the semester fee of the varsity by 20 per cent so that the institution can step towards self sustainability. The university’s affairs are being run through bank loans; despite reimbursing more than Rs200 million to banks, the university is still under debts of Rs 564 million,” a five-year finance report disclosed.
Talking to The Nation, NED Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Afzalul Haque said that there was no doubt about the monetary crunch that is being faced by the university. He said the varsity administration had already informed the HEC and the Sindh government about this grave situation but to no avail.
He said, “The university has received around Rs 56 million in the last grant but Rs 82 million are expected, while the university issues salary bill worth Rs 73 million, which shows that the varsity is facing deficit of Rs 17 million.”
The NED University was established in March 1977 under an act of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh after upgrading of the former NED Government Engineering College, which was set up in 1922. The NED University is one of the oldest institutions in Pakistan teaching and producing engineering graduates. Prior to this, the DJ Sindh College, used to run classes to train subordinates for the Sindh PWD, the Municipalities and Local Boards.
NED TO INCREASE SEMESTER FEE BY 20 PER CENT
Talking about some concrete steps that will be taken by NED University to control financial crisis, University’s syndicate have approved the decision to raise semester fee of the varsity, while the said decision remains unapproved from the varsity’s senate. He said that this increase is not very significant as the varsity is already receiving very nominal fee of Rs7200 on account of semester fee. He said, “NED Administration has setup a committee to prepare concrete measures to get the University out from this crisis. A proposal to commercialize laboratories of the University is also being considered to make money.”
To a query, he said that HEC representative and the Sindh governor’s adviser on higher education, Akhtar Ghori have already been apprised about the varsity’s fiscal situation, but they were still waiting for their response.Nation.
