The Punjab Higher Education Department (HED) has proposed a major restructuring of commerce education by planning to hand over around 76 public sector commerce colleges across the province to 17 public sector universities.
Earlier, Provincial Minister for Higher and School Education Rana Sikandar Hayat announced the move. In a video message shared on social media, he said the government would outsource public sector commerce colleges and around 50 general colleges with low enrolment.
According to official sources, the Punjab government has written to the vice chancellors of 17 public universities and directed them to take over commerce colleges located in their respective regions.
In a letter issued on December 18, the vice chancellors were asked to submit detailed feasibility reports for an initial period of one year.
The feasibility reports are required to cover academic planning, proposed programmes, market-linked courses, employment relevance, resource utilisation, and implementation timelines.
The universities assigned to prepare the 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.
This decision follows earlier steps taken in 2024, when the HED merged all commerce colleges into general colleges. This included eight women’s commerce colleges, which were merged into nearby women’s general colleges.
Districts affected by this merger included Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Khanewal, Chiniot, Sialkot, Narowal, and Rajanpur.
Previously, the merger affected more than 400 teachers and thousands of students, who were later shifted to general education colleges.
However, the Commerce Professors and Lecturers Association has strongly opposed the new proposal. The association called it part of a planned outsourcing and restructuring policy for public sector colleges, particularly those offering commerce education.
On the other hand, the government says the restructuring will streamline resources and improve efficiency. Still, educators and students have raised concerns that specialized commerce education may be compromised as a result of the changes.
