KARACHI: Since January 6, protests against the Sindh government’s proposed modification to the Sindh Universities and Institutes Laws Act have been going on, and as a result, all public universities in Sindh have suspended their academic operations.
Teachers and academics are fiercely opposed to what they see as a negative shift in the province’s higher education institutions’ leadership structure.
Along with academicians, the contentious measure suggests allowing non-academic authorities, such as bureaucrats, to be selected as university vice-chancellors (VCs).
Because university rankings are mostly based on research production, academics contend that this shift undercuts higher education because people without a background in research or intellectual inquiry cannot effectively govern institutions that are predominantly driven by research.
