UNIVERSITIES IN THE RED

Published in The MUSLIM, 24th April 1992

For the past few weeks, the teaching community has been restless. College teachers are already on strike and university teachers throughout Pakistan may also resort to industrial action if the government respond to their grievances by May 2. It will not be surprising if primary school teachers, whose lot perhaps is the worst of all, joined in the agitation.

It may not be an oversimplification to say that the current troubles in the education sector basically boil down to one key factor, that is, years of insufficient government funding for this heavily subsidized sector which saw ever more budget cuts under the present government. At the same time, educational institutions have not been allowed to generate their own funds to meet expenditures except by borrowing from banks. Borrowing is what our universities have been doing for the past several years, the result of which is that financial matters in the country's 21 state-run universities have come to a head. They have reportedly run up a deficit of Rs 500 million as of June last year and the amount has been increasing both because of more reductions in their budgets by the federal government and the interest accumulating on the loans. All state-run universities will have to sell the most obvious commodity that they have - seats. The serious drawback with this: is that higher education in Pakistan will become a prerogative of the rich with the universities becoming elite institutions affordable by those who can pay the fees.

Given the hopeless financial condition of the universities, those willing to come forward to salvage the universities through privatization will probably have consideration other than financial profit per se for owning the university, for example, political benefits. The person or group who buys over Punjab University for example will be gaining a large political constituency.

While the state-run universities are reeling under the financial crunch, the government recently announced intention to establish two new universities, namely, the National University of Science and Technology and the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Technology. A women's university is in the process of being established in Karachi. In more normal economic circumstances, this creation of new universities would have been considered a positive trend. But given the existing tight financial situation, especially in the education sector in general, one would have thought it better to put the expansion of higher education on hold, and instead concentrate resources allocated to education on expanding and improving primary education, and resources allocated for higher education on strengthening and improving the quality of the existing universities.

Politicians in power have tended to opt for opening totally brand new universities, this apparently being more politically rewarding than sinking the same amount of money into existing universities to pull them out of dire states. They probably consider the former politically a more visible and attractive proof of their ostensible desire to improve education in the country.

While the ideal solution to the problems in the educational sector in general is increasing substantially and budgetary allocation for this sector by drastic cuts in defence, the immediate solution to the problem faced by the universities in particular would be finding ways in which the universities can be made more self reliant in finance, and perhaps also writing off the existing loans owed by the universities although the impact on the banks would have to be considered. While cutting the defence budget is politically controversial and could take years to come about, there is no reason why the state-run universities should not be allowed to generate most of their own funds while remaining under government control.

There are several ways in which the universities can become more self-reliant without neither compromising the quality of higher education in the country nor depriving the less fortunate from admission into these institutions.

One method of generating funds is appealing for donations from the alumni. Oxford University in England has launched a very successful campaign in this way. When faced with drastic cuts in finance from the British government, Oxford University drew up a list of its alumni and launched a campaign to appeal for donations from them. Within two years, it managed to collect pounds 198 million out of the targeted amount of pounds 220 million.

The same can be tried by individual universities in Pakistan, once they get the okay from the government to do so. Yearly projects can be financed from these donations, for example, computerizing the various departments, getting new equipment for laboratories, updating the library with the latest books and journals, and even extra-curricular facilities can be similarly financed like auditoriums, tennis courts, gymnasiums etc.

The Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association has suggested another way of generating income at its recent annual meeting in Islamabad - commercial use of the property owned by the universities. Quaid-i-Azam University for example has about 1700 acres of land out of which only 150 acres are under use while the rest are lying economically idle. There are several ways in which the land can be put into acceptable commercial use like growing fruit trees or trees for timber and constructing buildings/offices to be rented out. Crores of rupees can be earned in this way by the university provided CDA gives QAU the permission to do so.

There are many other ways of generating income at Quaid-i-Azam University. A petrol pump can be set up at the university workshop and turned into a commercial enterprise - petrol and service station - catering to the needs of the university and the nearby diplomatic community. The existing medical centre on campus with expanded facilities like its own laboratory and X-ray etc. can also be turned into a commercial undertaking that caters not only to university personnel and their families but also to the surrounding locality.

There must be many other similar ways whereby the universities can become financially self-reliant. The Armed Forces has several seats for it in every department (3 seats in each department at QAU). Charging, for example, Rs 2 lakhs for each such seat will enable the university to earn a handsome amount. Our universities could also be allowed to advertise abroad to attract foreign students, especially from Muslim countries. Out of about 45 member countries of the Islamic Academy of Sciences, about 35 are without any scientific infrastructure. Students from these countries can be encouraged to come and study here. All that is needed is permission from the government for the universities to generate their own income, innovative vice-chancellors to provide motivation and drive, and the establishment of a department in each university that will undertake the various income-generating projects.

There is yet another way in which our universities can earn income which is common in the developed West - selling the academic staff's expertise and services to industry or to any other government or private organization which would want to entrust projects and assignments to the universities. This proposal was reportedly discussed three years ago during the previous government but no action seems to have been taken on it so far. However this method may not prove to be widespread means of earning income for universities in Pakistan given the dearth of the kind of industries that can make use of this kind of research.

Allowing the universities to become more self-reliant will not only make them lesser burden on the government exchequer but would also release crucial resources for the government to spend on primary education, the most neglected area in the already neglected educational sector. Moreover, more funds for the universities leading to better and improved facilities would also improve the quality of teaching and research.