Punjab University PhD faculty members

35.5pc of PU's faculty are PhD
Lahore, Aug 04: The Punjab University has earned an enviable position in the HEC ranking at number four in the year 2009 for its research and higher education of quality which remained unprecedented and unmatched in the 129 years history of the premier institution.

According to a press release issued here on Tuesday, 36.5 per cent of the total faculty of the University is PhDs which means 255 PhDs out of total 699 regular teaching staff. From amongst the 222 teachers working on contract basis, 56 are PhDs.

This miraculous achievement and improvement in the HEC ranking is an international recognition made possible during the past three years when an academician Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran took over charge as the Vice Chancellor.

The comparative study shows that the Punjab University has become the only University in the public sector having large number of PhDs and this is a very happy augury for the prosperous future of this country.

It is also a rare distinction that more than 30,000 are on campus regular students in the 73 teaching departments governed by 13 faculties and nine constituent colleges in the disciplines of arts, science, commerce, IT and computer science where the students at undergraduate, postgraduate, MPhil and PhD levels are studying. Apart from the main campus spread at 1800 acre lush green land, thousands of students are studying at the old and Gujranwala campuses.

The VC deserved appreciation for focusing on faculty development and PhD programme which has produced encouraging results.

The study further shows that the University currently has 985 teachers with 355 holding PhD degrees. The percentage of PhD faculty development has increased from 29 per cent in 2008 to 39.5 per cent in 2010 for regular teachers and from 23 per cent in 2008 to 27.8 per cent in 2010 for contractual teachers. The research papers in science and engineering are evaluated by the referees in development countries universities while the research thesis in language and literature are also evaluated by the experts in advanced countries.

As a result of promotion to research culture, the number of papers in impact factor journals has increased from 162 in 2007 to 352 in 2010.

During the financial year 2007-08, the VC succeeded in allocating Rs 4 million for research adding to the equal amount already granted by the HEC for research purposes.

In the year 2008-09 and 2009-10, the research budget was enhanced to Rs 50 million while in the budget 2010-11, a record increase of Rs 80 million was made in the budget for research. An Endowment Fund for research was also established with an initial allocation of Rs 250 million. The naiton

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PU result declared in five hours
Lahore: A team of Punjab University's College of Information Technology (PUCIT) has declared the result of BS Software Engineering (SE) entrance test just in five hours after the conduct of the test and uploaded it on the college's website on the same day (midnight). The PUCIT conducted the BS Software Engineering entrance test on July 31. Forty teams, comprising two persons each in IT enabled environment, marked 10,000 entrance test quizzes.

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PU exam
Lahore: PU Examinations Department has issued a schedule for submission of admission forms for Diploma in Physical Education (Under Graduate), Annual Exam 2011.

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Faculty rally raps attack on professor
Lahore: Punjab University faculty members on Wednesday held a rally on the New Campus against the firing at the house of Physics Department Chairman Prof Shaukat Ali the other day and condemned the incident. They also demanded an operation in hostels to ouster illegal occupants.

Before taking out the rally, the teachers held a meeting at the Al-Raazi Hall of the Centre for Undergraduate Studies against the firing incident at the house of Dr Shaukat Ali, also a member PU Syndicate and Disciplinary Committee. Deans of faculties, heads of departments and a large number of male and female teachers attended the meeting. The house unanimously condemned the incident. Addressing the gathering, Dr Shaukat said this was a terrible and terrorist activity involving harassment and murder threat.

He said he was member of administrative committees and resisted the barbarism, harassment and torturing of the students by the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT). He said he was also a member of Syndicate conducting inquiries against the students who were involved in activities of hooliganism, terrorism and disturbing the peaceful academic atmosphere of university.

The president and secretary general Academic Staff Association (ASA) also spoke on the occasion. Representatives of the Officers Welfare Association also strongly condemned the attack and firing incident. The news

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Plea against VCs' appointments
Lahore: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC), on Wednesday, issued notices to the Punjab governor and the newly appointed vice chancellor of the Government College University (GCU) on intra-court appeals against appointment of vice chancellors of six public sector universities in Punjab

Dr Hassan Amir Shah, Dr Yousaf Hayat, Dr Shaukat Ali and Dr Maqbool Hussain Sial had filed these appeals. A single bench comprising Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh had, on June 24, dismissed petitions in this regard, declaring that the Punjab government's search committee had been acting lawfully and no irregularities were found in the process of appointment.

The petitioner's counsel, Anwar Kamal, on Wednesday, sought permission to make Punjab governor and GCU Vice Chancellor Khaliqur Rehman necessary parties in the case. The bench accepted the request and issued notices to both the governor as well as GCU VC for August 15.

On July 4, the bench had said that the appointment of the six VCs could not be finalised till a decision on inter-court appeal was made.

Kamal requested that orders of the single bench be set aside. He said that the Punjab government, through an advertisement dated January 19, 2011, had invited applications for the posts of VCs in six public sector universities of Punjab, including the GCU. He said the petitioner, being eligible as per criterion laid down in the advertisement, applied for the slot of GCU VC.

He said according to the criteria the candidate for this post was required to hold a PhD degree in any subject from a university of repute.

He said the search committee later changed the criterion and was inviting only foreign qualified candidates. The counsel said that the call letters for these posts were only issued to the candidates who had obtained PhD degree from 500 top foreign universities of the world.

He submitted that the candidates holding PhD degrees from Pakistani universities were not called for the interview. He said the petitioner was a PhD degree holder from the Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, so he was also not considered for this post and no interview letter was issued to him. "The exclusion of the petitioner's name from the selection process by not being called for interview is discriminatory and illegal," the counsel pleaded.

He also assailed the composition/constitution of the 'Search Committee', saying there were no rules, regulations and policy guidelines for selection and appointment of its members.

He pleaded that the reported selection of 500 top foreign universities by the search committee was arbitrary and had no basis in fact or in law.

He submitted that none of the members of the search committee was either PhD or had teaching experience. "As such, academic credentials of the members of the present search committee to interview the candidates for the post of VC, who possess much higher academic qualifications than each one of them, raise serious issues of credibility," he argued. The counsel said that exclusion of universities of Pakistan from the list of 'reputed universities' and giving preference to the foreign universities was ex-facie discriminatory and unlawful.

He said the entire process of selection of the VCs starting from the composition of the search committee to selective interviews was devoid of legal basis and a credible mechanism and was liable to be set-aside. He requested the court to declare the appointment criterion through search committee and ignoring the PhDs of the country as illegal. Daily times

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