HEC accepts protesting tenure track teachers’ major demands

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has accepted most of the demands of university teachers serving under the tenure track system.

A large number of teachers protested outside the HEC on Monday. They said around 6,000 university teachers are serving under this system across the country and have been facing several issues that have not been addressed by the HEC or by universities.

Their protest bore fruit when HEC Chairman Dr Tariq Banuri, the newly appointed Executive Director Dr Shaista Sohail and Member Operations Fateh Marri held a meeting with a delegation from the protesting teachers.

A few days ago, tenure track teachers, led by Dr Khurram Shahzad, held a press conference in which they said neither the HEC nor universities have been owning faculty members, who are being exploited.

Dr Shahzad said that the HEC had formed a committee to resolve issues facing tenure track faculty, but the committee’s recommendations had gone unattended for nearly a year.

Teachers working under the basic pay scale formula have received regular raises, they added, but tenure track teachers have not received any increment for several years.

The protesting teachers demanded their issues regarding grace periods, leave policies, early tenure, pending endorsement cases, journal policies, salaries increases and pensions should be resolved immediately with clear policies and notifications.

Most of their demands were accepted after the meeting with the HEC officials.

A press release issued by the HEC on Monday said Dr Banuri assured faculty members working under the tenure track system that the commission had already decided to accept their genuine demands.

“After detailed discussion on different demands by the TTS faculty, it was decided that within the current week HEC will issue three notifications,” the statement said.

It added that one notification will pertain to an increase in the length of tenure of faculty members from six to nine years with a revised criteria, and the two others are related to clarification regarding administrative positions previously held by tenure track faculty as well as the future course of action for holding such positions.

Two more notifications will be issued in a month’s time, one for the revised salary structure of tenure track faculty members and the other for their pension scheme, in light of the commission’s decisions. The HEC will also consider other issues raised by the faculty members.