Federal budget cut for HEC worries varsities about ongoing research
Karachi:June 26:As funds for the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) have been slashed in the federal budget for the fiscal year 2019-20, the academic community of the country is concerned about the completion of ongoing research projects in the universities as even the large varsities rely heavily on the government’s grants for meeting their expenditures and have no enough resources of their own to overcome their budget deficit.
Various organisations of the varsities’ academic staff and teachers, including the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa) and the Inter University Consortium for Promotion of Social Sciences Pakistan, have also expressed their concerns over the cut in the funds for higher education in the federal budget. They say that the recent deduction in the higher education fund would not have a good impact on the varsities as they would face many administration-related problems in the coming days. The HEC high-ups have advised the varsities to generate their funds rather relying on the commission.
A low priority sector
Even in the budget for the outgoing fiscal year 2018-19 that was announced last year, the allocation for the educational sector was abysmally low as the education budget to the GDP ratio was estimated to be 2.4 percent, which was the lowest in the region.
The federal government had initially allocated Rs45 billion for the HEC under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). Later, the interim government cut the amount to Rs35.830 billion; however, the revised budget documents showed that Rs21.465 billion was released for the HEC in the fiscal year 2018-19. Currently, the documents of the proposed federal budget for the fiscal year 2019-20 reveal that Rs29.047 billion has been earmarked for the HEC under the PSDP, which is almost 19 percent less than the last year’s allocated amount of Rs35.830 billion.
The commission had itself asked the government to allocate Rs55 billion for it in the 2019-20 PSDP, which shows that the HEC only got around 53 percent of the development funds it had demanded.
Tough times for varsities
With a decrease in the funds for the HEC, the higher education sector could face an unprecedented budget cut of up to 50 percent in the coming year. If this turns out to be true, it would severely affect the quality of higher education and research at the government-run universities.
“Carrying out quality researches need more funds and resources. But the budget cut in the financial year 2019-20 for higher education would not meet faculties and research fellow’s expectations as they were expecting an increment in the grants for their research projects,” said Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast) Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Syed Altaf Hussain.
He added that the slashed budget for higher education would also hinder development projects of varsities, including the construction of new blocks on their campuses. The Fuuast VC shared that one of the varsity’s campuses was under construction in Islamabad and its revised PC-1 had been estimated at Rs1.2 billion. He expressed his hope that the budget cut would not affect the construction work at Fuuast.
“It’s not just a case of Fuuast. Other varsities would also face difficulties in meeting their expenses,” he said. Meanwhile, Karachi University (KU) Acting Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi also stated that the financial position of the KU was unsatisfactory. “Large varsities like the KU face budget shortfall every year. The only reason behind this is the limited resources of the HEC.”
He pointed out that the KU received Rs2 billion annually from the commission and also generated the same amount from its own resources. However, the payables of the KU amounted to Rs5.5 billion which indicated an annual deficit of Rs1.5 billion.
Prof Iraqi feared that a further decrease in the HEC funds would result in an acute financial shortfall at the KU. He added that last year the Sindh government provided Rs438 million to the varsity to help it overcome its financial crisis.
Call for corrective action
Commenting on the budget cut, Fapuasa Secretary Arif Khan said the federation had shared its grievances about the decrease in allocations for higher education in a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan last month. “However, the minister for federal education and professional training, Shafqat Mahmood, had assured the academic community that education and research activities are included in the priority list of the PTI government. The budget for higher education therefore will not be decreased in the FY-2019-20. But it seems that the minister has no powers over the budget allocations,” Arif said.
He said slashing budget for the HEC meant creating numerous challenges for the universities and degree-awarding institutions. It would not be easy for these institutions to simultaneously continue academic and research activities, hold international seminars, initiate scholarship programmes for doctorate and post-doctorate levels and pay salaries and allowances of the staff, he said.
However, the newly elected Fapuasa president, Dr Sohail Yousaf, said that a delegation of the federation met Qasim Khan Suri, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, and Minister of State for Revenue Muhammad Hammad Azhar on Monday to discuss the budget cut issue.
The minister of state for revenue assured the delegation that the federal government was planning to initiate new programs for researches under the knowledge economy in the supervision of the Ministry of Science and Technology, for which the government had specified funds of Rs14 billion, which would be given to faculties and research fellows through the ministry instead of the HEC. So, Dr Yousaf said, the federation believed that though the government did not provide the fund demanded by the commission, initiating new research programs was a really commendable initiative of the PTI government. “The federation is completely satisfied with the government, especially after the meeting with the deputy speaker and the minister of state for revenue. And Fapuasa has taken back the call of protest at campuses level, which was announced last week.”
Currently, there are more than 190 public varsities and degree-awarding institutions across the country. Of them, 22 are directly managed by the federal government and a majority of these institutions have initiated development projects, including constructions for the expansion of their campuses.The news.
