3 universities of Islamabad are facing severe financial crises, even struggling to pay salaries and pensions.
The list of affected universities is:
Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU)
International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI)
The Federal Urdu University of Science and Technology
Due to insufficient funding from the HEC, these 3 universities are under major financial crises.
HEC, Federal Minister of Education, and Professional Trainers have requested the Federal Government to approve supplementary grants of around 2.5 billion to meet the crisis.
The Federal Secretary of Education stated, “Yes, we have submitted a request for 2.5 billion to support QAU, IIUI, and Urdu University. We are hoping the issue will be resolved soon after relevant authorities’ approval.”
In broader aspects, the majority of educational institutes of Pakistan are facing financial crises and collectively the crisis has reached 60 billion. According to HEC chairperson Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, “In the National Assembly Standing Committee only 65 billion was allocated as per the educational budget but the requirement was 125 billion. That was the biggest reason for the financial crisis of the current fiscal year.
Dr. Mukhtar stated,
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“Per student funding was PKR 67,528 in 2018-19, now per student funding has declined to PKR 50,956 in 2023-24, this decline has made universities harder to manage operational costs.”
The National Assembly committee has emphasized raising the educational budget to 4% of the GDP in 2025-2026 of the fiscal budgets. HEC officials stated,
“After the 18th amendment, chartered university funding is the responsibility of the provincial government. Other than Sindh, provinces are not provided with adequate funding, leading to financial pressure on HEC. Low educational funding has strained universities' ability to support federal chartered institutes. Same situation is happening in the universities of KPK and Balochistan. Due to stagnant HEC funding, salaries, pension, and utility costs continue to rise. We want the provincial and federal government to raise funding for universities in the upcoming budget of 2025 - 2026. Higher education sector can’t progress without financial aid from the federal and provincial governments.”
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