By Dr. Gyan Pathak
The Draft UGC (Minimum Qualifications of Appointment & Promotion of Teachers and Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2025 released by Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan paves the way for greater control of the Centre on Higher Education. It undermines not only the supremacy of the academicians as vice-chancellors of universities, but also worsen the service conditions of teachers by allowing their appointments on contracts in large numbers. Autonomous functioning of universities will be casualty and thereby the quality of higher education in the country.
Nevertheless, Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan has said that the draft reforms and guidelines will infuse innovation, inclusivity, flexibility and dynamism in every aspect of higher education, empower teachers and academic staff, strengthen academic standards and pave the way for achieving educational excellence. He even congratulated the team of UGC for their efforts in formulating the Draft Regulations and Guidelines in sync with the ethos of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
Currently, the Draft Regulations, 2025 have been placed in the public domain for feedback, suggestions, and consultations. Union Minister Pradhan expressed his confidence that the UGC will soon publish the Draft Regulations 2025 in its final form.
It was claimed by the government that the regulation will give flexibility to university in appointing and promoting teachers and academic staff in their institutions. The nine benefits enumerated are: flexibility, promotion of Indian Languages, holistic evaluation, diverse talent pool, inclusivity, enhanced governance, simplified promotion process, focus on professional development, and enhanced transparency and accountability.
Nevertheless, the big sounding claims conceals the real intentions. For example, as an official has been reported saying that “the regulation doesn’t mention the Governor anywhere. Whoever is the Chancellor will appoint the selection committee.” One can sense something fishy about the choice of words since many of the Governors as Chancellors of universities in the states they holding the constitutional post, especially in the opposition ruled states, have been at loggerheads with the ruling establishments, such as in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.
There has been a general allegation against the Centre led by PM Narendra Modi that they have been trying to fill the Higher Education with their own people from RSS-BJP family. In the last 11 years, institutions of higher education and universities has seen large number of backdoor entries, while numerous posts are vacant and regular appointments are not being done.
Appointments of Vice Chancellors have been a contentious issue. Through the Draft Regulation 2025, Governors are made more powerful, so that as Chancellors they can appoint Vice-Chancellors without hindrance from the ruling establishment of the state. It is just undermining the federal structure, in which a Governor is only a constitutional head of the state, who is supposed to act on the advice of the state government. Currently, many governors are acting as mere agents of the Centre, the new provisions of appointment of Vice-Chancellors are matter of serious concern, since they give much scope for manipulation.
As per the new provision “The Chancellor/Visitor shall constitute the Search-cum-Selection Committee comprising of three experts.” Such a power to Governors would erode the rights of a state’s ruling establishment. Not only that, the draft regulation says that non-implementation may result in debarring an institution for participating in UGC schemes or from offering degree programmes.
The Draft Regulation also gives enough room to Governor to manipulate appointment of Vice-Chancellors, since the necessity of the candidate to have “distinguished academician” has been done away with. The new regulation says that the candidate’s qualification would be a “distinguished person possessing high academic qualifications and demonstrated administrative and leadership capabilities.” Now a person having an experience at a senior level in industry, public administration, public policy, or public sector undertakings can also be appointed as Vice-Chancellors. The provision may be humiliating for academicians, which may ultimately deteriorate the entire environment of higher education.
There are large number of vacancies in the universities of the country. Ad-hoc/ contract/ or teachers are being appointed or engaged at very low wages or salaries, with no chance of their regularization as a teacher. It has adversely impacted the morale of not only such teachers but also of grooming scholars with bleak prospects for them as teachers in universities. It has adversely impacted the quality of both teaching and learning, and thus higher education has already been undermined.
The new provision will worsen the situation since the cap on such appointment, which is 10 per cent of an institution’s total faculty positions, has been removed. It would further close the door of decent jobs for teachers in higher education, which in turn sharply push up the low-quality teachers jobs in universities and colleges. It would certainly deteriorate the higher education system in the country.
Draft Regulation 2025 has also done away with the current Academic Performance Indicators (API) system for recruitment and promotion of teachers. It has now been replaced by a system based on “notable contributions” across nine categories, which include teaching contributions in Indian languages, teaching-learning and research in India Knowledge Systems, innovative teaching contribution, research or teaching lab development, consultancy or sponsored research funding as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator, student internship or project supervision, digital content creation for massive open online courses (MOOCs), community engagement and service, and a “startup”, registered with the Registrar of Companies as “a founding promoter, successfully raising funding through government, angel or venture funds to support the startup.”
The rational given by UGC Chairman M Jagadeesh Kumar against API is that it “heavily relied on quantitative metrics, reducing academic performance to numerical scores. ”Nevertheless, the new system of nine categories gives ample opportunity of manipulation since it depends more on qualitative approach, which will allow selection committee to appoint candidates based on their subjective assessment of the candidates.
As for appointment of university teachers, there are also several changes. PhD regular mode requirement has been relaxed along with relaxation in NET or SET. NET will no longer be mandatory for appointment as assistant professor. Guidelines have such other sweeping changes that are being criticized by University Teachers and academicians. (IPA Service)