LAHORE: The Punjab Higher Education Department (HED) has initiated a major restructuring of commerce education by proposing to hand over around 76 public sector commerce colleges across the province to 17 public sector universities.
The move is being seen by academics as a part of the department’s planned outsourcing and restructuring policy for public sector colleges, particularly those offering commerce education.
The proposal follows an earlier announcement by Provincial Minister for Higher and School Education Rana Sikandar Hayat who stated, in a video message shared on social media, that public sector commerce colleges and around 50 general colleges with low enrolment would be outsourced.
According to official sources, the Punjab government has written to vice chancellors of 17 public universities, directing them to take over commerce colleges in their respective regions.
In a letter issued on Dec 18, the VCs were asked to submit detailed feasibility reports for an initial one-year period. The reports are to include academic planning, proposed programmes, market-linked courses, employment relevance, resource utilisation and implementation timelines.
Critics see it a move towards outsourcing, restructuring and privatising public sector colleges
The universities tasked with preparing feasibility reports include the University of the Punjab, Government College University Lahore, Government College University Faisalabad, University of Sargodha, Islamia University Bahawalpur, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Fatima Jinnah Women University Rawalpindi, University of Gujrat, University of Sahiwal, University of Kamalia, University of Rasul Mandi Bahauddin, Government College Women University Sialkot, Ghazi University Dera Ghazi Khan, Khawaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology Rahim Yar Khan, Thal University Bhakkar, Information Technology University and UET Taxila.
Punjab University VC Prof Dr Muhammad Ali Shah termed the move a positive step, saying that public assets were being transferred to public institutions. He said most commerce colleges were not functioning effectively and their performance could improve under university oversight.
Sharing details of the plan, Prof Shah said the universities would launch business and commerce programmes while continuing existing courses. The colleges would function as constituent colleges under university charters, similar to the Hailey College of Commerce.
The PU VC added that existing staff would be transferred to the universities and additional recruitment would be carried out to improve academic and administrative functions. The government, he said, would also provide funds to subsidise student fees.
The decision follows earlier steps taken in 2024 when the HED merged all commerce colleges into general colleges, including eight women’s commerce colleges that were merged into nearby women’s general colleges. Districts affected by the merger included Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Khanewal, Chiniot, Sialkot, Narowal and Rajanpur. The previous move affected more than 400 teachers and thousands of students who were later shifted to general education colleges.
The representatives of the Commerce Professors and Lecturers Association have strongly opposed the move and called it a step toward privatisation and outsourcing.
While the government says the restructuring aims at streamlining resources and improve efficiency, the move has raised concerns among the educators and students, who fear that specialised commerce education may be compromised.
Earlier, the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) had proposed designating public sector colleges as constituent colleges of universities within the same district or division.
The commission said the initiative was intended to address challenges such as student-teacher imbalance, administrative constraints, infrastructure gaps and limited academic autonomy, and to align colleges with modern educational requirements.
(Shafiq Butt from Sahiwal also contributed to this story)
Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2025
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