KP universities face severe financial crisis

PESHAWAR: Over 34 universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) are grappling with a financial crisis, facing a collective loss of over 15 billion rupees, ARY News reported.

As per details, the financial woes are attributed to a significant disparity between the universities’ income and expenditures. While the total expenditure stands at 34 billion rupees, the income is merely 18 billion rupees.

The increase in salaries and pensions has exacerbated the issue, leading to a substantial gap between income and expenses.

The Higher Education Commission has also frozen the annual grant of Rs 9 billion 40 million since 2018. However, the provincial government has released a grant of 1 billion 90 million rupees for the universities in 2023-24.

To address the pension and grant obligations, the universities require Rs 13 billion. Moreover, an additional Rs 8 billion 75 million are needed to settle the pension obligations.

To mitigate the financial challenges, experts suggest establishing endowment funds and digitizing fees and other processes to streamline operations and enhance efficiency.

READ: KP’s biggest university faces financial crisis

In May last year, the biggest university of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was facing financial crises.

The university had no money to pay the salaries of employees and the projects were also stopped due to lack of funds.

The university administration needed Rs 300 million for the payment of salaries and pension but the Higher Education Commission (HEC) did not release the full budget and students not paid the fees on time.

Vice Chanceller (VC) said that the employees’ protest resulted in the loss of Rs 200 million. The university was facing a Rs 350 million loss and the payment of salaries dependent on the fee submission by students.