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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100829/jsp/frontpage/story_12869346.jsp
G.S. MUDUR
New Delhi, Aug. 28: The University Grants Commission has erected a hurdle to faculty recruitment by rendering thousands of PhD holders ineligible for appointments unless they have cleared a National Eligibility Test, faculty members and scholars say.
A UGC order has indicated that only candidates who obtained their PhDs under new quality standards, made mandatory in July 2009, would be exempt from the test for appointment as assistant professors in varsities and colleges.
Senior faculty members said the language in the June 30 order appeared to have been crafted without thought about its implications for existing PhD holders or scholars now pursuing PhD in Indian universities.
“Very few existing PhD holders would fulfil the rigorous 2009 standards,” said Subhash Lakhotia, zoology professor at Banaras Hindu University (BHU). “We need standards to improve the quality of Indian PhDs, but this order will put a large number of young aspirants to disadvantage for no fault of theirs.”
An association of BHU scholars has demanded that the new rules be applied only to scholars who registered for their PhDs after July 2009, when the new quality standards came into effect.
University faculties desperate to fill up vacancies too are unhappy with the new rules. Jawaharlal Nehru University alone has more than 100 faculty vacancies, said Alok Bhattacharya, senior faculty member at the JNU School of Life Sciences.
At BHU, Lakhotia said, the number of faculty vacancies runs into hundreds. “On the one hand, India is planning a massive expansion of its education base, on the other, it is preventing thousands of PhD holders an opportunity to even face selection committees,” he said.
A UGC official said varsities with grievances could make submissions before September 30 to a committee the commission has set up to “remove anomalies”.
Under the June 30 order, even existing PhD holders who have cleared the NET would be denied the five advance increments available to PhD holders appointed as assistant professors.
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(if you having troubles, try posting your comment on this page or send an email to chronicle @ itbhuglobal.org)Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP