NUML violates HEC rules, department head positions filled with non-PhDs

The National University of Modern Languages (NUML) has violated the HEC rules of appointing doctorate degree holders at important leadership positions within the institution. The administrative and academic positions are filled with a number of retired military officers with little regard for merit and qualification. Moreover, many department heads do not have PhD when doctorate holding faculty is available in the institution.

According to HEC rules,

“The head should preferably have earned a doctorate degree in an academic discipline. He should have attained a distinguished leadership preferably in education and academic administration and management with proven track record of extensive experience and skills in initiating and managing change, strategic planning and overseeing the implementation of plans through outcomes.”

Senior teachers with PhD degrees have to report to the non-PhD head of the department for Thesis’s supervision, approval and other affairs. There have been no internal promotions within the teaching faculty of the university and most of the new contracts are handed over the university preferred faculty. This situation has only disheartened many qualified faculty members.

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The departments being run by non-PhDs in the university include English, Urdu, French, and social sciences departments, economics department, and the Faculty of Occidental Languages.

Currently, four retired army officers are the heads of departments such as Brig (retd) Wasiq Ahmed is the head of the Pakistan Studies Department, despite the fact that he does not hold a doctorate and there are two PhDs available within the department. On the other hand, Maj-Gen (retd) Ziauddin Najam has been appointed as the new rector of the university after Maj-Gen (retd) Masood Hassan, who remained a rector for around four years.

Moreover, Brigadier (retd) Aminullah Khan was appointed as the registrar and Col (retd) Javed as an academics director instead of preferring the teaching faculty for these posts.

The university spokesperson Bilal Khan told Express Tribune that the appointment of non-PhDs as heads of the department was not an issue as it was an administrative post. He added that all head of departments will be replaced right after the start of the new semester. But he denied to comment on the appointment of former military officials on important academic and administrative posts.

Source: Express Tribune