Open Forum

New Delhi, 12 February 2025

Draft UGC Rules

INFRINGING ON FEDERALISM?

By Dhurjati Mukherjee 

The recent draft guidelines of the University Grants Commission (UGC) have come in for criticism as it’s seen as a blatant attempt of the Centre to take control of universities across the country. Opposition to the guidelines intensified with higher education ministers of six States denouncing them as a grave threat to the country’s federal framework. According to them, the UGC’s initiatives were detrimental to the autonomy of states in public university matters. 

A recent conclave of such ministers in Bengaluru was attended by ministers from Karnataka, Telangana; Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala and Tamil Nadu where it was unanimously resolved to withdraw the rules and called for a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education. The States feared losing all powers with regard to the appointment of VCs as the draft rules put the governor in control. 

It may also be pointed at the very outsetthat whether a university is a Central or a state one, political interference has increased over the years, and this is specially manifest in the last decade or so.The autonomy of the universities is steadily being lost due to outside interference, leading to decline in the standards of teaching and performance. The most important aspect that has been criticised by academicians is the UGC directive that the post of vice-chancellorship would be open to industrialists, bureaucrats and other public managers. However, the guidelines stated that such persons “should have a proven track record of significant academic contributions” but that appears to be just be a face-saver. 

The question that arises is whether the country has a dearth of academic scholars that bureaucrats or public sector managers have to be inducted as vice-chancellors? This criteria needs to be reviewed and it may be stated that exceptions may be made for only accomplished scholars in the bureaucracy or in public sector management, who have deep knowledge of their subject and can guide scholars in the right direction. One name that comes to our mind is that of late Dr. Bharat Ram who obviously could have been an outstanding vice-chancellor or director of an IIT or any other educational institute. 

The other aspect in this regard is that the selection of vice-chancellors would now have one nominee each of the UGC and the chancellor (the Governor in case of state universities). It has been alleged that both would toe the line of the Centre and the state governments would not have a say in the matter. This indeed is a debatable proposition. It may be pertinent here to point out that the governments in several Opposition-ruled States such as Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala were on a conflict with the Governors — also Chancellors of several State-run universities — over appointment of Vice-Chancellors. So far, the governments have been constituting the search committees for appointing Vice-Chancellors, and if approved, the draft allowed the Governors to appoint the search committees for the process. 

Secondly, the minimum eligibility conditions for professors or associate professors are not only academic achievements but notable contributions in other fields which include consultancy, teaching contributions in Indian languages, project supervision etc. These, specially consultancy may be considered useful qualifications but fundamentally academic scholarship and innovative ideas in guiding research are, no doubt, vital qualifications for a professor. Academic scholarship and updated knowledge on the subject is vital for a university professor. 

Another aspect, which obviously has not found favour is that the assistant professor of a subject could be recruited from those who have not studied the subject for their degree course but had conducted research or passed the National Eligibility Test in it. Though it may be stated that a real scholar who has studied the subject, or to be more specific his area of specialisation, should be able to carry out post-graduate teaching but the same may not be true for all assistant professors, even if they are NET qualified. It is important to refer here to the Economic Survey 2024-25 which has observed, and quite rightly, that reputed institutions should be allowed to advance on their own path of excellence, according to their areas of focus and domain expertise. This obviously should not change. 

However, while changes have evoked criticism, the other important things need attention is the need for autonomy that is, giving more powers to the heads of universities and other higher educational institutes and also how research would be encouraged. Most well-known state universities are suffering from a resource crunch in all spheres, which include maintenance of existing infrastructure, expanding hostels and of course buying sophisticated instruments for laboratories. It is not known what the government thinks in these vital areas and whether funds would be made available to these universities. 

At this juncture, when the country is aiming to march ahead economically and socially, there can be no denying that higher education has to expand and not be limited to cities and peripheral areas. The financial conditions of some of the universities in semi-urban areas are indeed quite bad and there is need for the Centre to set up new Central universities in the backward districts of the country. But no provision has been made in recent budget for this nor any special funds for infrastructure modernisation or upgradation of laboratories.  

Reports indicate that as per directive of the UGC, 800 universities have already established R&D cells. The obvious purpose of these comments by the UGC chief is to upgrade standards of higher educational institutions which indeed are laudable. But these apply to HEIs primarily located in metros and big cities. The question arises about varsities in districts and remote areas whose funding all along has been quite meagre as a result of which the infrastructure is poor and teaching standards not of high quality. Will the UGC or RUSA give funds for building the research infrastructure and other attendant needs that will go a long way in promoting research and upgrading standards? 

What needs to be reiterated is that political interference in higher education cannot be tolerated, and specially by touts of political leaders, and autonomy has to be given to the heads of these institutions. It may also be stated that a higher education centre is a place for gaining knowledge and the atmosphere should not be allowed to be vitiated with politics. Finally, as has been observed by various experts and studies have revealed that the education budget of the government needs to be hiked in tune with other emerging economies.---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)