The syndicate meeting of PU was held in the Committee Room of the Vice Chancellor VC office that approved budget of the University for the year 2021-22 was approved. H.E the Chief Justice, Lahore High Court Muhammad Ameer Bhatti, and other members participated in the meeting.
Punjab University Syndicate’s 1743rd meeting, presided over by Lahore High Court Chief Justice Justice Ameer Bhatti and chaired by Vice Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmed, on Thursday recommended Rs 12.6 billion budget for the approval of Senate for the year 2021-2022. Despite facing serious financial pressure amid COVID 19, PU Syndicate decided to continue providing scholarships and subsidies to the students so that burden on the pockets of students and their parents could be reduced.
On the directions of the vice chancellor for increase in PU’s international ranking further and socio-economic impact research, the PU Syndicate allocated Rs 263 million as it was the policy of the administration to promote research culture. PU would also continue overseas scholarship scheme for teachers. The university has allocated Rs 68 million for participation in national and international conferences. The university faces a deficit of Rs 585 million which would be managed by reducing expenditures and adopting austerity measures. On this occasion, the Syndicate members appreciated the austerity measures taken by the university.
The university expects a total grant of Rs 3.3 billion from Higher Education Commission, 27.9 percent of the total budget while PU would generate the rest of 72.1 percent from own sources.
According to other salient features of the budget, special students will also be provided with free education along with boarding facilities while students taking admission on sports basis will be provided with free education. The university will continue to waive off tuition fee of Hafiz-e-Quran. Punjab University will provide Rs 215 million scholarships to the students. Moreover, HEC scholarships worth 136 million rupees and PEEF scholarships will also be provided to students.
In the budget, Punjab University would continue to provide subsidy of millions of rupees to the students in hostel, transport and internet heads and in addition to the above, subsidy on electricity bills in teaching departments is also being provided. PU has allocated Rs 1.3 billion for development projects. PU has also approved to purchase additional land for Khanaspur campus for Rs 38 million. The syndicate endorsed the appointment of Prof Dr Faheem Aftab as Chairman Affiliation Committee and nominated Dr Sohail Chand and Dr Sardar Asghar Iqbal as its members. The Syndicate also approved annual increments for TTS faculty members.