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Govt planning to restructure agri varsities

ISLAMABAD: The federal government plans to restructure agriculture universities in the country to meet the challenges of research and development in the farm sector.

A proposed restructuring plan has been sent to Chief Executive General Musharraf for his final approval, official sources told Fortuna.

The University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, (UAF) has been selected for restructuring and modernisation before the range of the programme is expanded to other agriculture universities of the country. Cotton commissioner of the Agriculture Ministry Dr Zakir Hussain has drawn up this proposed plan for the restructuring of the UAF.

Funds required for developing science-based-application-oriented programme will be arranged from the provincial governments, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and UNDP.

Dr Zakir Hussain commended that the university faculty was highly qualified as about half of its membership held doctoral degrees but majority of younger faculty members were inexperienced and not exposed to the world outside academia.

He said three out of every four doctors obtained their degrees from the UAF. Dr Zakria said the proportion of faculty members with Ph.D degrees from foreign universities will come down drastically in the coming years if younger members do not go abroad for higher studies.

He said one-third of the UAF faculty members will be retiring during the next seven years as majority of the members were hired during the formative years of the university.

"This means that by the end of year 2005, 60 percent farm scientists, majority of whom have no practical exposure will remain in position. This will put an enormous strain on the system which is likely to suffer from lack of leadership in many disciplines", Dr Zakir said.

Similarly, he added a large number of supporting field staff is nearing retirement age and unable to perform assigned physical tasks promptly and effectively.

He said, to address these issues, research and teaching programmes at the UAF will be re-oriented to enhance and sustain present production level and also to develop human resource of motivated graduates and scientists striving for excellence.

He said the university will continue to perform an important role in the development of trained manpower in agriculture, agriculture engineering, veterinary and animal sciences, home science and allied sciences.

It has been proposed that syllabi of various programmes should be updated to maintain high-academic standards.

"New courses and training programme are necessary for developing much needed trained manpower not only for teaching research and extension programmes but also for meeting requirements of fast expanding industry in the country," Dr Zakir Hussain concluded. Fortuna