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NED Senate approves budget
Karachi, July 2(The News): The Senate of the NED University of Engineering and Technology has approved a
budget of Rs561.245 million against a budget outlay of Rs645.275 million,
incurring a deficit of Rs84.03 million.
The budget was presented to the
Senate of the university in its meeting on Saturday, where it was duly approved.
The projected income and expenditure of the Self-Finance Scheme is Rs30 million,
however, a profit on this scheme of Rs1 million brought the total to Rs31.500
million. The estimated expenditure is 25 per cent for research, totaling Rs7.875
million; an estimate for various development works is Rs23.625 million, bringing
the total to Rs31.500 million.
The budget estimate for the Research Fund
for 2007-08 is Rs35 million income and Rs35 million expenditure on PhD Research
Projects, Master's Level Research Projects, stipends and other
expenses.
Abul Kalam, the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the NED has resented
the attitude of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), which had ignored its
position as the Funding Agency and is instead focusing on something that does
not fall under its purview; that is, conferring ranks and accreditation to the
universities. Kalam registered his criticism while presenting the highlights of
the Annual Report 2006-07, to the Senate. According to him, the HEC also tried
to intervene in appointments of Professor Emeritus and Meritorious Professors.
The intervention was denied by convincing the concerned individuals that such
decisions rested only with the Chancellor on the recommendation of
Syndicate/Senate.
While talking to us in his office, the VC
revealed that the Model University Ordinance, in his opinion, is a
'monstrosity,' as it is far from the ground realities and hardly conforms to the
ideals of a university. He said that in a meeting of the VCs of 40 public sector
universities, 37 VCs, including himself had rejected the idea, while the
remaining three had abstained from voting.
Shams Kassim Lakha, who was
the convener of the meeting, had lied to President Musharraf regarding the VC's
acceptance of the idea. The ordinance could only be promulgated, if ratified by
the provinces and till date none had done it. The NED resisted the ordinance to
protect students from the exorbitant fee, as most of them belong to middle or
lower middle classes. The university had adopted the policy on principle,
despite the fact that it was receiving the least amount of funds, compared to
other universities. For example, NED had received Rs112 million, while Mehran
University of Engineering and Technology had received a staggering Rs750 million
and Peshawar University Rs200 million.
He also informed that proper
planning had allowed the university to complete the four-year degree course, as
compared to the six years it took until 1997. The utilisation figure of the
Development Budget of the university was estimated at Rs426.852 millions or 95
per cent against the Pakistan Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of Rs449.318
million, which is one of the best in all the universities.
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