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.
