PhD doctors’ association protests for permanent jobs

Islamabad :In order to highlight the sufferings of PhD graduates’ due to ongoing Higher Education Commissions’ (HEC) policies, young PhD holders from various parts of country, staged protest in front of Press Club here on Monday.

The protest was part of campaign launched by Young PhD Doctors Association Pakistan (PDA) for employment of permanent placement/employment of PhD degree holders.

A deadline was given till July 20, 2017 for acceptance of demands otherwise peaceful protests would be organised throughout the country and in front of Parliament house. The office bears and representatives of Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations and civil society organizations also participated in the protest to show solidarity with the young PhD scholars.  They stated that all the policies in higher education sector should be aimed at promotion of higher education rather taking Pakistani higher education back.

The young PhD degree holders were of the view that after achieving highest education in relevant fields from foreign and Pakistani universities, a lot more than 400 of PhD graduates are facing extreme difficulties in finding jobs in Pakistan and this is increasing day by day.

As per HEC policy, PhD graduates who have completed their degrees on HEC’s foreign or indigenous scholarship must serve for the period of five years in Pakistan. For the first year, HEC manages interim placement and later candidates must have to find their ways. However, finding and doing job on interim placement has become extremely unfortunate experience for PhD graduates. They were of the view that in spite of bring the matter under the notice of leadership of HEC; no concrete step has been taken by HEC to resolve this important issue. Billions of rupees are being spent on foreign and indigenous PhD scholarships by HEC.

They demanded the regular and TTS jobs for PhD degree according to their qualification in public and private sectors.

HEC must advise the universities to hire PhD graduates to fulfil the vacant posts of Assistant Professors (AP) instead of hiring BS/MS degree holders and must regularize the interim, contractual or visiting PhD faculty after completion of IPFP in respective posts as per HEC-university agreements.

HEC should ensure that universities should announce faculty positions and must abandon the practice of hiring visiting/contractual faculty. Moreover, HEC should ban the extra credit hours/workload for all faculty members and focus on the hiring of faculty as per demand in universities. No faculty member should teach more than his/her allocated workload according to HEC rules (20:1) student faculty ratio.

HEC must advise all the universities to regularise the interim, contractual or visiting PhD faculty after completion of IPFP in respective posts as per HEC-university agreements. HEC should ensure that universities should announce faculty positions and must abandon the practice of hiring visiting/ contractual faculty.

HEC must cancel the NOCs for those departments which have no PhD faculty according to HEC criteria in public and private universities. HEC should also discourage policy of sub-campuses by universities and should take concrete steps to build universities at district level. It can also be carried out through upgrading and merging existing sub-campuses to full-fledged universities at district levels.

The young PhD scholars requested Honorable Prime Minster, President, Chairman Senate of Pakistan, Speaker National Assembly of Pakistan to take serious notice of current situations in education department of Pakistan. Moreover, the Supreme Court of Pakistan take Suo moto action against responsible bodies HEC.

The Committee members of Young PhD Doctors Association Pakistan Dr Sher Afzal, Dr Qasim Ali, Dr Haleema Sadia, Dr Faheem Khan, Dr Sajjad Ali and Dr Kamran Khan, Universities of Agriculture Faisalabad, Lahore University, Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi and Peshawar University spoke on the occasion. 

Article source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/214199-PhD-doctors-association-protests-for-permanent-jobs