University Grants Commission update

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Data on faculty vacancies

Regulations to check deemed varsities
NEW DELHI : On January 27 the University Grants Commission formally approved the draft regulations that seek to tighten the noose around deemed universities.

The regulations would ensure government control on admissions, fee structure, job recruitment, curriculum and maintenance of academic standards in deemed universities, according to Prof K Ramamurthy Naidu, Chairman of the UGC committee constituted to frame the regulations.

According to the regulations approved by the UGC the admission of students "shall be made strictly on merit, on an all-India basis, in all the deemed universities through a common entrance test conduced either by the UGC or by an institution or agency identified and approved by it." This, experts say, will take the lusture away from a deemed university and put the new aspirants off.

Similarly the admission of NRIs/ persons of Indian origin/ foreign students to deemed universities shall also be governed by these UGC regulations, the regulations said adding that the records of admission shall be preserved at least till the time of the passing out of the respective student.

The regulations do not specify any quantum for the fee but say that the "fee structure for various programmes...shall also be fixed in accordance with the Regulations framed by the Commission."

The expert committee was appointed by the University Grants Commission in mid 2007. On November 30, 2007, the UGC decided to send a copy of draft regulations to vice-chancellors of all deemed universities, asking for comments and suggestions within 15 days. In December 2007 the Ministry of Human Resource Development sent a circular numbered F. 6-1(11)/2006(CPP-I) to all the stake-holders seeking their opinion on the proposed regulations.

The process took place over a year to finalise things and finally on January 27, 2009 the UGC approved the regulations and sent it to the HRD Ministry for the final seal of the union government.

The committee has provided for punitive action involving withdrawal of the deemed university status. It has also asked the institutions to implement the reservation policy in admission and recruitment as per directives of the Union government, Dr Naidu said.

According to the regulations the deemed universities should maintain the prescribed standards of instruction, academic and physical infrastructure, qualification of teachers, pay scales etc as mentioned by the UGC and it should have a valid accreditation from the National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) with at least B or equivalent grade.

“The Central Government/ UGC shall have the right to cause an inspection of the institution deemed to be university, its buildings, labs, examinations, teaching and other work conducted or done by the institution and to cause an enquiry to be made, if considered necessary, by the Centre/UGC, in respect of any matter of the institution deemed to be university,” the regulations said.

“If the commission is satisfied that the institution deemed to be university has violated any of the provisions of these regulations or any directives issued by the commission, the UGC may direct the concerned institution not to admit new students for the period to be decided by the commission and in case of deliberate and continuous violation of these regulations, may advise the Centre for withdrawal of the declaration notifying the institution as an institution deemed to be university, "it said.

For the first violation, the withdrawal might be restricted to one academic session which could be extended up to five academic sessions for repeated violations.

However, for serious and debate violations, the status will be withdrawn permanently.

University Grants Commission
Bahadurshah Zafar Marg
New Delhi - 110002

www.ugc.ac.in

Search panel drags feet, UGC still headless

NEW DELHI : The selection of the chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) has been considerably delayed with the three-member search committee dragging its feet without reaching any concrete conclusions, said a Hindustan Times report datelined January 29.

The report credited to Pankaj Vohra said that the search committee has now sought an appointment with the Human Resources Development (HRD) minister, Kapil Sibal, to seek some “unnecessary'' clarifications regarding eligibility criteria of candidates in general and the age clause in particular.

The newspaper report said quoting sources that the reason for seeking clarification was that some candidates in the age range of 62-64 years also figured in the zone of consideration.

The UGC Act, significantly, stipulates that the office of the UGC chairman shall be whole time and he/she shall “hold office for a term of five years or
until he attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier''.

Accordingly, the UGC chairman has to be appointed on a whole time basis and for the full term. The provision does not allow for interpretation knowingly or deliberately that a person could be appointed chairman for a period, which will not be one term of five years.

The appointment is, therefore, to be guided in that the identified incumbent should be able to serve five years in office and without exceeding the age of
superannuation -65 years.

The stipulation in the advertisement given by the HRD ministry on this subject mentioned, “...nominees should be preferably below the age of 60 years''. This appears to have also been guided by this principle. Non-adherence to this provision will tantamount to violation of the relevant stipulation in the UGC.

Curtailment of full term due to an intervening factor such as superannuation or some unforeseen reasons of exit from the position would be an exception and not a rule.

The HRD ministry's decision in the appointment of Prof SS Mantha as the chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), made nearly a fortnight ago, supports the principle cited for the position of the UGC chairman.

The AICTE chairman has been appointed for a full term of three years (as per the provision of the AICTE Act) by the ministry notwithstanding the introduction of the legislation about the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) in Parliament.

Sources said that attempt to get the age clause relaxed by the search committee could be to bring in some candidates who do not otherwise fulfil the criteria. Hectic lobbying is going on for this coveted position where the names of some vice chancellors who are facing an enquiry also figure.

The long list of aspirants has amongst the front-runners a former vice chancellor who was overlooked for a similar position for the Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University last year. pvohra@hindustantimes.com

NET to have more objective questions from June

From Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI : The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to change the pattern of National Eligibility Test and set the questions in objective style rather than expect long hand-written subjective style.

This, UGC sources said, will spare the aspirants from writing long answers in the nation-wide eligibility test that it holds twice a year. This will expedite the NET result as well, a UGC official said.

The change would come into effect from the test it plans to hold in June this year.

The current system has two objective type tests to examine the candidate’s general knowledge and teaching aptitude, and a subjective section to test in-depth her knowledge in the specialised subject.

“It was noted that this pattern of the examination often led to delay in the declaration of the results. It also sometimes forced students to appear in the test again,” sources said.

Also, there have been instances when students expressed their unhappiness over the evaluation of their answers to the subjective questions and demanded to bring changes in the examination pattern, they said.

Many feel doing away with the subjective test paper in the NET could be a way forward to see more candidates emerging successful than before, while some feel the objective type test may not be justified in case of those opting subjects like English and Hindi.

“How can they (UGC) assess the writing skills of those appearing in NET for languages like English, Hindi. Without the descriptive question papers, one cannot test a person's proficiency in a language paper,” Anand Bhushan, a research scholar, said.

Aditya Narayan Mishra, a professor and former president of Delhi University Teachers’ Association, said the UGC decision may help many “brilliant” students qualify.

“There has been a need to change the current test pattern. Many bright students, especially those coming from fields like operational research, find it difficult to get through,” he said. Mishra, however, too agreed with the argument that descriptive question paper for the subjects relating to language was significant for the testing the writing skills of the candidates.

UGC decision on API triggers wild reactions

NEW DELHI : The UGC Commission's strong recommendation on January 16 to implement Academic Performance Index (API) based rating for university teachers has triggered wild reactions from the teachers' organisations in the country.

According to the new regulations approved by the UGC at a crucial UGC Commission meeting on January 16 the promotion of university and college teachers would be linked to their output in research and teaching, rather than years of experience, a move that prompted angry FEDCUTA president A N Mishra to launch a protest.

The Regulation for Minimum Qualification of Teachers was accepted by the Commission and will be sent to the government for concurrence, said K Ramamurthy Naidu, a Commission member. Once approved by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, it would be implemented all over the country.

The teachers associations have been bitterly opposing the move to quantify their output and link it to promotion but Dr Naidu said that the decision was taken after a year-long exercise during which views of all key organisations including FEDCUTA president A N Mishra was taken.

"The output of the teachers will be quantified and they will be awarded marks as per their works in research, teaching, publication and other curricular activities," a UGC official said defending the proposed regulation.

Reacting to the UGC move the Federation of Central Universities' Teachers' Association (FEDCUTA) claimed that the regulation would deflect teachers' attention from their primary responsibility of teaching.

"The UGC Committee has given weightage to activities such as campus development, institutional governance and consultancy projects which are not under control of teachers and which solely depend upon administrators' discretion," FEDCUTA president chief A N Mishra said.

There were equally volatile reactions from neighbouring Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan teachers bodies.

Kurukshetra University Teachers Association (KUTA) president N S Kaushal demanded that all issues should be discussed with the stake holders rather than arbitrarily imposing them on the teaching fraternity. He said that the new score system would force the teachers to be mechanically-oriented towards score building rather than ensuring their commitment to the profession.

Bhagwan Singh Chaudhary, executive council member, Kurukshetra University, said that undue weightage to point system for promotion would lead to mushroom growth of journals and books from private publishers/ academic mafia as the teachers who would be desperate to get their research article published for promotion. The teachers’ body reiterated the demand for 10 per cent of basic salary as academic allowance for all categories of teachers.

In Lucknow Maulinda Mishra the chief of university and college teachers organisation said that the new move will affect teaching.

UGC makes NET/SLET must for M.Phil holders

NEW DELHI :The University Grants Commission (UGC) has made it mandatory for the M.Phil holders to clear the National Eligibility Test (NET) or the State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) to be considered for the post of lecturer.

The move is to ensure the quality of faculty in institutes of higher learning.

However, candidates holding a Ph.D might still get an exemption from clearing the NET if they have done their research in compliance with the UGC norms.

"In case, the Ph.D has not been done in compliance with the UGC rules, the candidate will have to clear the NET/SLET tests before he is considered for the post of lecturer," UGC chairperson Sukhadeo Thorat has said.

Earlier, keeping in view with the increasing number of vacancies in teaching posts in institutions across the country, the UGC had exempted the M Phil holders from clearing the NET/SLET tests. Even the L Mungekar Committee appointed by the UGC supported this exemption in their interim report. However, in their final report, the skipped the exemption as they had observed that students with the poorest percentage could get enrolled and acquire an M.Phil degree.

The UGC has also come out with a uniform regulation on Ph.D programmes, according to which the universities will lay down criteria for the faculty to be recognised as research supervisor for M.Phil and Ph.D students.

"A supervisor cannot have more than eight Ph.D and five M.Phil scholars at any given point of time. The universities will decide the number of M.Phil and Ph.D seats and advertise them widely. The universities will have to admit M.Phil and Doctoral students through an entrance test," the regulations said.

The entrance will be followed by interview in which the doctoral students will discuss their research area. After admission to the Ph.D course, the students will have to do a course work for a minimum period of one semester.

"The course work will be mandatory and it will be treated as pre M Phil/Ph D preparation," Thorat said.

After the students complete the course work, they will undertake a research work and will have to make presentation in their departments for feedback. Then they will produce their thesis within a reasonable time," he said. The thesis will be evaluated experts, including one expert outside the state. Then the candidates will have to appear for a viva voce exam, he said.

The institutes will submit a copy of the thesis to the UGC which would store in its depository being set up in Ahmedabad. The UGC will prepare a database on the Ph.D work being produced.