A Comparative Study of Tenure Track System and a Basic Pay Scale System of Academic Professional Working in Public Universities of Pakistan Challenges and a Way Forward

Abstract

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has introduced many productive schemes to ensure that higher education maintains its high standards of quality and excellence (Khan & Jabeen, 2011). The Tenure-Track System (TTS) was introduced in Pakistan in 2002 to improve the quality of education by hiring the highly qualified faculty in higher education institutes, especially public universities. Another system is the Basic Pay Scale System (BPS). It governs how much an employee get an amount as salary or wages depending on their grade, experience, position, or tenure within an organization and the effort expended to accomplish a particular work. The aim of the study is to know the comparison between these two compensation systems and to know the challenges faced by the faculty members working on both systems in order to know a way forward to improve the systems for faculty members. The nature of the study is qualitative. The researcher has contact twenty faculty members (ten faculty members working on BPS and ten working on TTS) to do in depth face-to-face interviews in four public sector universities with the academic professionals working on BPS and TTS. Participants in the survey will comprehend that their names will kept private by receiving a clear explanation. The results shows that mostly faculty members are familiar with the difference between two systems. The findings also suggests that one both system have their own pros and cons. This Study is contributing towards the enhancement of understanding of TTS and BPS, major