Five percent reduction in grants to government universities, ban on opening new campuses

Karachi: In the context of the current economic situation of Pakistan, the higher education sector is going to suffer more difficulties. The federal government has cut the individual funds of all the universities of the four provinces by one and a half percent for the next financial year 2023/24 without increasing the overall fund of higher education.

The approved grant for the current financial year 2022/23 has also been sent to all universities in the last month of June with a 5% deduction. In this way, the grant for the current financial year has also been cut.

After the cut of one and a half percent for the next year, HEC is increasing the individual budget of the universities under the federal government by five percent, but this increase will be done keeping in mind the performance of the federal universities.

The Federal Higher Education Commission of Pakistan has also approved these decisions in an emergency meeting of the commission and it has been made clear to all the participants in the meeting that the grant of Rs. will be given to the universities because the federal government is not ready to increase the grant to the universities.

However, in this meeting of the commission, the cut in the grant of the universities of Sindh has been rejected with a strong reaction, after which the commission came to the conclusion that even if the grant of the universities of Sindh is not cut, even the rest of the three provinces. The grant will be deducted and this grant will be given to federal universities.

On the other hand, the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan has also reduced the grant of government universities for the current financial year 2022/23 by 5 percent. This cut has been made in the gross grant sanctioned and sent after deducting the grant in the last quarter of the current financial year. The allocated grant for 2023/24 will traditionally start coming with a delay of about two months, while due to the cut in this year’s grant, the universities will continue to face difficulties in making payments including salaries, pensions and utility bills.

“Express” has learned that only NED University of Engineering and Technology has been given Rs 54 million less than the sanctioned grant. Similarly, 100 million rupees have been withdrawn from the sanctioned grant of University of Karachi. 45 million rupees have also been deducted from the annual grant of the federally run Urdu University. In the same way, five percent has been deducted from the total grant of other public universities of Sindh. Many universities in Sindh are running on overdraft OD. It should be noted that since 2018, the annual grant of government universities across the country, including Sindh, could not be increased, while now the cut in the approved grant has started.

On the one hand, there is no increase in the grant for many years, while now the news of reduction is coming out, on the other hand, some universities are paying salaries by taking loans. The ratio of HEC grant in the expenses of the universities is decreasing every year due to which the purchase of books in the library of some universities has stopped. Most of the universities are making their journals online only instead of printing them. Chemicals and other equipment are not being purchased in laboratories. Universities are unable to improve their infrastructure, which is directly affecting students and affecting the quality of education.

Chairman HEC Islamabad Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed while talking to “Express” confirmed that the grant is not increasing. The federal government has talked about giving grants in the higher education sector in the upcoming budget for 2018. Chairman HEC said that he has written letters to the four provincial governments to share the financial burden of their respective provincial universities with us and increase their contribution in this regard. Referring to Sindh, he said that the Sindh government has increased the grant of its universities, we want other provinces to do the same.

It should be noted that the Sindh government has increased the grant of government universities from 14 billion rupees to 21 and a half billion rupees in the budget of the new fiscal year 2023/24. The Chief Minister has approved the summary of this allocated grant, but at the same time, a ban has been imposed on the opening of new campuses of all the universities of Sindh and it has been said that this creates a huge financial burden.

The approved summary of the increase in grant-in-aid of public universities also said that all professional (medical, engineering, agriculture and technical) universities should focus on their own programs instead of establishing more and new general faculties, as this would increase There will be a financial burden. In the summary approved by the Sindh Chief Minister, it has been said that universities are independent, government grant is not a sustainable solution for the financial assistance of these universities, so they should use their own resources instead of relying on government grant. Organize your business plan to increase income and decrease expenses.

A vice-chancellor of Sindh Government University informed “Express” about his opinion in this regard and said that until the federal government increases its grant, our difficulties will continue to increase. The news of increase in grant from Sindh government is commendable but the problem is that inflation and salary increase after the budget does not let us get out of this vortex, on the other hand development grants are not coming from HEC anymore. He said that it is becoming difficult to open new departments and introduce new projects in the universities because we can hardly manage the salaries of the existing faculty, from where to get new departments and new faculty? He said that middle and poor class students come in government universities, they cannot increase the fees significantly.

It should be noted that the provincial grant of NED University will increase from 69 crores to 1 billion 14 crores after increasing the grant of government universities to about 7 billion rupees by the government of Sindh. Mehran University grant Rs 97 crore to Rs 1 billion 45 crore, Dow Medical University provincial grant Rs 55 crore to Rs 89 crore, Rs 1 billion 49 crore to Rs 2 billion 46 crore, Lyari University Rs 12 to Rs 18 crore, Dawood Engineering University Rs 83 crore from 1 billion 11 crore rupees, while the grant of Sindh University Jamshoro will increase from 1 billion 42 crore rupees to 1 billion 93 crore rupees.