PESHAWAR: The higher education department is likely to initiate the annual academic and administrative evaluation of the vice-chancellors of the public sector universities in the province for the first time, according to officials.

They said that a proposal for evaluation of vicechancellors was forwarded by the department to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak for approval. They said that the aim of the evaluation was to improve the standard of public sector universities.

`It is a part of the reforms programme of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government,` officials said.

Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, the special assistant to chief minister on higher education, when contacted, said that the decision about annual evaluation of vice-chancellors was not final, rather in process. `I think that the approval of the proposal will take a week,` he said.The evaluation would make the vice-chancellors conscious in utilisation of fundsandadministrativeaffairs,MrGhani said.He added that the vice-chancellors would also make efforts to improve the standard of academics once their annual evaluation was started.

He said that it was necessary to evaluate the performance of vice-chancellors to see whether the activities in universities were on the right track or not. `Af ter the evaluation, if performance of vice-chancellors is satisfactory, they will continue their jobs. If their performance is not satisfactory, then the department will consider other options,` Mr Ghani said.

The vice-chancellors were appointed for four years but so far no one had bothered to evaluate their performance, said a senior official of the higher education department. `Academically government universities are on decline as there is no proper check on vice-chancellors,` he said.

The official said that the performance of fresh vice-chancellors would be evaluated after two years while in the following years it would be conducted annually. He said that in the first phase, the vice-chancellors showing unsatisfactory performance would be given a warning for bringing about improvement in their performance within a specific.

If a vice-chancellor failed to improve his performance then Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, the chancellor of the public sector universities, would ask someone in the senate to move a resolution for his removal, the official said.

He said that under the Khyber PakhtunkhwaUniversities (Amendment) Act, 2013, a vice-chancellor could be removed with tow/third majority of the senate.

The official said that a vice-chancellor could appoint employees from grade-1 to grade-16 in a university while employees in grade-17 and above were appointed with the approval of syndicate.

It would be obligatory on the vice-chancellors to share all data of the newly recruited employees up to grade-16 and their credentials with the syndicate that would ensure transparency, he said.

Improvement in performance of teachers would also be considered in the evaluation process, the of ficial said. The research papers and publications of teachers would also be considered in the process, he added.

The official said that it was responsibility of vice-chancellor to pursue the research work of teachers. `By and large, presently teachers of universities are not taking interest in research,` he said.

He said that not a single university of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was ranked among the top 10 universities of the country. `Teachers` research and their publication in different journals play pivotal role in the universities ranking,` he said. A vicechancellor, when contacted, said that vice-chancellors should have no objection over their evaluation. He termed it a right step and said that financial audit of universities was already conducted every year.