SAU needs budgetary allocations for Umerkot campus

At stake also is the future of 1,229 students of the campus who have continued their higher education online for at least six months since ceiling plasters of their campus buildings began to fall. On Saturday the SAU's spokesman denied any plans of closing the campus permanently.

He categorically rejected reports circulating in sections of the print and social media suggesting that the university administration or its vice chancellor intend to shut down Umerkot campus. The campus was set up in 2017 as a project of the Higher Education Commission, Islamabad.

An abandoned public school, which was built in early 1990s spread across 54 acres of land, was given by the provincial government for the campus. The classes began after repair works of the shabby buildings.

But the repairs did not last longer and the crumbliness began to re-appear, exposing both students and staff to safety hazards.

In 2024 the HEC stopped releasing funds for the campus for the reason that campus could not arrange a larger piece of land for agricultural research which was a part of the Memorandum of Understanding between the HEC and the SAU.

The withdrawal made payment of funds for the campus' operations difficult for the SAU least to arrange funds required for the campus buildings repairs., since then the SAU has been utilising the main campus funds to foot the bills of Umerkot. As many as 30 teaching faculty, mostly regular employees, and over 70 administrative staff were employed at the campus.

They are currently being paid only basic salary sans allowances like housing, conveyance and others. This amounts to between 30% to 35% deductions in monthly salaries. The spokesman claimed that the only objections of the HEC for suspending the funding, acquisition of land for agricultural research, has also been sorted out.

The district administration some months ago provided the required land to the campus. But the HEC's funding has still not resumed. Meanwhile, the SAU has approached the Sindh government for a bailout of Rs200 million during the ongoing fiscal 2026-2027 to help it pay for the campus expenses.

"The campus remained an integral part of the institution and all possible efforts are being made to sustain its academic and administrative operations," the spokesman said, quoting Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Alta Ali Siyal.