Pakistan's universities face a number of problems including, underfunding, low enrollment, and questionable degree quality. One problem cuts across nearly all the others, and yet gets far less attention than it deserves: a practice of running universities on ad hoc leadership.

A significant number of Pakistani universities are, at any given time, run not by a vice chancellor serving a full term, but by someone holding acting or additional charge, sometimes for months, at other times for years. This happens mostly because the selection process is delayed by design. In the provinces, it passes through a search committee, the provincial Higher Education Commission, the Higher Education Department, the Chief Minister's Office and the Governor's Secretariat. For federal universities, add the federal HEC, the Ministry of Education and the President's Secretariat. At any of these stops a file can sit for months, unaccounted for. 

The result is what might be called 'auto-piloting. Because the charge is temporary, so is the mandate. He or she cannot commit a university to anything that outlasts their own tenure, whether a multi-year academic plan, a capital project, or a hiring round with long budget implications. An acting vice chancellor's signature does not carry the weight of a regular one's, and decisions taken on that authority are liable to be reopened the moment a permanent successor arrives.

An acting vice chancellor also has an incentive a regular one usually does not: turning a temporary charge into a longer, or even a permanent, one. This shapes behaviour in fairly predictable ways. Acting heads tend to avoid decisions that make enemies, such as disciplining errant faculty, resisting pressure in admissions, or holding the line on finances. They lean instead towards out-of-turn promotions, regularising ad hoc appointments, and other........

© The Friday Times