nowledge is central in the 21st Century to the development of a country. A knowledgeable citizenry ensures welfare of the masses in terms of equitable provision of economic, educational and healthcare resources. The production of such knowledge through research is the foremost responsibility of universities. The universities are expected to prepare graduates equipped with life skills. In Pakistan, however, many universities face serious challenges, including underfunding, low enrollment rates and ad hoc academic leadership.

Enrollment in higher education is lower in Pakistan in comparison with other countries. Access to higher education, however, is just one aspect of the problem. Another side of the problem is the issue of quality and relevance. A large number of PhD degree holders from our universities remain unemployed because the credibility of the programmes offered by some universities is questionable in terms of relevance and academic rigour.

Most public universities complain of the meager financial resources available to them. In the recent past, the funds were cut further by half, leaving the public universities struggling for survival. A number of recommendations have surfaced to uplift higher education but most of the proposed reforms have failed at the implementation stage mainly because of the absence of political will. It is important for the goals of a reform agenda to be realised that the key players are educational leaders. In the case of universities, it is the vice chancellors.

A perennial problem with Pakistani universities is ad hoc-ism. A number of universities have been left to work without regular vice chancellors, mostly because of delays in the selection process. Vice chancellors for public universities are selected through a tedious process. In the provinces, it involves search committees, the provincial Higher Education Commission, the Higher Education Department, the Chief Minister’s Office and the Governor’s Secretariat. For federal universities, it includes the federal Higher Education Commission, the Ministry of Education, the search committee, the Prime Minister’s Office and the President’s secretariat. Too frequently, the selection and appointment gets delayed, for some reason or the other. This results in ‘auto-piloting’ of the universities.

In April 2024, a writ petition was filed before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The petitioner submitted that out of the 147 public sector universities, about 60 were functioning without regular vice chancellors. In an earlier case, Aamir Raza Ashfaq v Minhaj Ahmed Khan (2012), the court had held that “the position of vice chancellor should not be left vacant,” and that “delay in such an appointment has an adverse effect on the functioning of the university.” Despite the clear observation, more than 60 public universities in Pakistan were still working without regular vice chancellors.

A perennial problem with Pakistani universities is ad hoc-ism. A number of universities are left to work without regular vice chancellors, mostly because of delays in the selection process.

The Supreme Court directed the authorities to fill the important positions within three months. As a result, some of the universities got permanent vice chancellors. However, in the Punjab, out of the 51 universities, 25 are still working without permanent VCs. One example of this delay is Pakistan’s oldest university, the University of the Punjab, where the tenure of the regular vice chancellor ended in June 2022 but no regular vice chancellor had been appointed until September 2024. A number of other universities across the country were also functioning without regular vice chancellors for long periods. The ad hoc arrangements cause a number of problems. First, the acting vice chancellors do not have the mandate for long-term strategic planning. They can only take decisions on day to day affairs. In the absence of a regular vice chancellor, therefore, decision making on important financial, administrative and academic issues gets stalled. This impacts the academic environment, causing hardship to students as well as employees.

A vice chancellor appointed on ad hoc basis is always weak as his/ her authority is not taken seriously by the university employees and the external departments. This leads to academic decline and ultimately administrative anarchy. In some cases, the ad hoc vice chancellors wish to continue/ stretch their tenures. They then try to please various groups of employees in the university and make undue concessions.

These consequences are natural outcomes of the ad hoc leadership in the universities. The longer the ad hoc arrangements remain in place the greater damage is done to the university. When regular vice chancellors are finally appointed, they have to face the consequences of questionable decisions taken by the ad hoc/ acting vice chancellors in the financial, administrative and academic domains.

A major step to strengthen public universities is for the federal and the provincial governments to ensure prompt appointment of regular vice chancellors in a fair and transparent process. This is not very difficult to accomplish and requires no additional funds. The dates by which the tenures of the incumbents will end and vacancies occur are known to the relevant departments. There is no apparent reason why they can’t start the selection process in time to be able to announce the appointments just in time.

Timely selection and appointment of vice chancellors can provide reasonable overlapping time for debriefing sessions by the outgoing vice chancellors to their successors. Regularising the appointment process and adherence with timelines can be the first step towards the uplift of universities and higher education in Pakistan.

The writer is an educationist. He can be reached at: shahidksiddiqui@gmail.com