PESHAWAR: The Higher Education Department (HED), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has decided to formulate uniform model statutes for the public sector universities in the province by incorporating best practices of the leading national and international universities.

The model statutes would help bring uniformity in the rules and regulations of all the public sector universities across the province, according to sources.

Asked about the best practices, the sources said that the model statutes would chiefly contain rules on how to effectively run the universities academically, administratively and financially. They said that the statutes would also lay down a uniform procedure for the promotion of employees, efficiency and disciplinary action.

Currently, each university in the province has its own statues made for running the affairs of the university under the law. The need for the model statutes was felt after the promulgation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act, 2012 being implemented in all the universities, said the official sources. Prior to this law, every university had its own law passed by the provincial assembly.

They said that the HED had already formed a committee to frame model statutes and it had so far held four meetings in this regard. Additional secretary HED Dr Khalid Khan is convener of the committee while its members include deputy director distant education, University of Peshawar, Noorzada, UoP treasurer Uraid Ihsan, Li-Sael-Wal-Mehroom social welfare organisation director Akbar Ali, HED section officer Asad Jan and legal drafter law department Shagufta Naveed.

The official sources said that the model statutes would be prepared in the light of the statutes of the leading national and international universities.

They said that the committee had already summoned the statutes of the prominent universities to study and take idea from them for preparing a comprehensive document of new statutes.

Rules and regulations to include best practices of leading national, international universities

The sources said that after their preparation each university would adopt the model statutes with the approval of a proper forum.

They said that existing confusion for the HED among the statutes of the universities would also end with the introduction of the model statutes.

They said that the uniform rules and regulation would set the same criteria for the appointments in different categories in the universities, which currently had a different set of rules for various appointments.

The formation of same statutes for all government universities was part of the reform agenda of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government, one of the committee member told Dawn. He advised the HED high-ups to avoid work in haste during formation of this important document, adding that it should be made after meticulous study of the rules of leading universities.

Requesting anonymity, the committee member said that the model statutes would be more beneficial for the universities to be established in future because the administration of such universities would have ready-made statutes to adopt for running the affairs from the day one.

The sources said that most of the universities established during the previous government had yet to prepare their own statutes. They said that the administration of such universities had adopted statutes of other well-known universities.

source: Published in Dawn January 19th , 2015