Islamabad, Oct 19: KP Universities Face Severe Financial Crisis
Over 34 universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) are reportedly experiencing a serious financial crisis, with cumulative losses totaling more than 15 billion rupees, according to ARY News.
The dilemma is caused by a significant disparity between revenues and expenses, with colleges spending 34 billion rupees overall while only receiving 18 billion rupees in revenue.
This disparity has gotten even wider due to rising compensation and pension costs. Additionally, starting 2018, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has frozen a 9.4-billion-rupee yearly award. In contrast, during the fiscal year 2023–2024, the province government announced a grant of 1.9 billion rupees for the universities.
Thirteen billion rupees is what universities need to pay for grants and pensions; an additional eighty-seven billion rupees is needed for pension commitments.
To boost productivity and ease financial burdens, experts advise creating endowment funds and digitizing fee collection and administrative procedures.
The biggest institution in KP was similarly impacted by a financial issue in May of last year. It was unable to finance ongoing projects or pay personnel salaries due to a lack of funding.
Students’ late fees were compounded by the fact that the university required 300 million rupees for salaries and pensions, but the HEC refused to release the entire budget.
