IN A MAJOR overhaul of the method of appointment of leaders in increased training, the College Grants Fee (UGC) issued new guidelines Monday which successfully give Governors in states broader powers in appointing Vice-Chancellors and opened the place to business specialists and public sector veterans, thus breaking from the custom of choosing solely academicians.
Based on authorities sources, if accredited as is, the brand new rules will give Chancellors better management over Vice-Chancellor choice. This can probably have important ramifications for Opposition-ruled states corresponding to Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Kerala, the place the federal government and Governor (who serves as Chancellor of state universities) are at present locked in disputes excessive educational appointment course of.
The brand new draft rules — titled ‘College Grants Fee (Minimal {Qualifications} for Appointment and Promotion of Academics and Educational Employees in Universities and Schools and Measures for Upkeep of Requirements in Greater Schooling) Rules, 2025’ — have additionally eliminated the cap on contract trainer appointments.
The 2018 rules had restricted such appointments to 10 per cent of an establishment’s complete school positions.
The brand new guidelines will likely be finalised after the upper training regulator receives public suggestions on the draft.
“The Chancellor/Customer shall represent the Search-cum-Choice Committee comprising three specialists,” the brand new rules state. Earlier, the rules talked about that the choice for the submit of Vice-Chancellor must be via correct identification by a panel of three–5 individuals fashioned by a Search-cum-Choice Committee however didn’t specify who would represent the committee.
Defined
A brand new flashpoint
Based on a senior authorities official, there are at the least two Supreme Courtroom judgments that make the UGC rules, particularly these pertaining to educational appointments, relevant to state universities as effectively.
In different phrases, Governors in states who’re Chancellors of state universities now have extra management over the choice course of and still have the ultimate say on the V-C appointment. The draft tips additionally warn that non-implementation might end in debarring an establishment from collaborating in UGC schemes or from providing diploma programmes.
“Each time we revise UGC rules, we attempt to make adjustments primarily based on previous experiences. So far as Vice-Chancellor appointments are involved, now we have tried to make the choice course of as clear as potential, leaving no room for ambiguity,” mentioned a senior authorities official. When requested if the change was influenced by the tussle between the Authorities and Governors in some states, the official mentioned, “The regulation doesn’t point out the Governor wherever. Whoever is the Chancellor will appoint the choice committee.”
One other key change within the draft rules is that college Vice-Chancellors needn’t be professors, however will be people at senior ranges in business, public coverage, public administration, or public sector undertakings, going by the College Grants Fee’s (UGC) new draft rules on appointment and promotion of academics and educational employees in universities and faculties.
One other key change within the draft rules is that it does away with the Educational Efficiency Indicators (API) system– a rating that determines the recruitment and promotion of academics primarily based on parameters corresponding to publication in journals. As an alternative, “notable contributions” throughout 9 classes are to be thought of for recruitment and promotion of academics, together with “educating contributions in Indian languages” and “teaching-learning and analysis in Indian Information Programs.”
Based on UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar, the API system within the 2018 rules “closely relied on quantitative metrics, lowering educational efficiency to numerical scores.”
“Within the earlier rules, candidates have been usually judged totally on numerical standards, corresponding to journal or convention publication counts. The 2025 rules discontinue the API-based shortlisting and undertake a extra qualitative method, permitting choice committees to evaluate candidates holistically primarily based on their notable contributions and broader educational impression…,” he mentioned.
Different notable contributions that will likely be thought of are progressive educating contribution, analysis or educating lab improvement, consultancy or sponsored analysis funding as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator, scholar internship or mission supervision, digital content material creation for large open on-line programs (MOOCs), group engagement and repair, and a “startup”, registered with the Registrar of Corporations as “a founding promoter, efficiently elevating funding via authorities, angel or enterprise funds to help the startup.”
Kumar mentioned the topic specialists within the choice committee for these hirings will consider the notable contributions “in a clear means as determined by the choice committee.”
“The draft rules broaden the scope to establish leaders who can navigate advanced programs, foster innovation, and construct significant collaborations between academia, business, and society in alignment with the imaginative and prescient of NEP 2020,” he mentioned.
Earlier rules issued in 2018 had mentioned that the V-C must be a “distinguished academician”, with a minimal of ten years of expertise as a Professor in a College or ten years of expertise “in a reputed analysis and/or educational administrative organisation with proof of getting demonstrated educational management.”
The brand new draft rules say that the V-C candidate is to be a “distinguished particular person possessing excessive educational {qualifications} and demonstrated administrative and management capabilities”, with a minimal of ten years of expertise as a professor in the next instructional establishments, or at a senior degree in reputed analysis or educational administrative organisations, or at a senior degree in business, public administration, public coverage and or public sector undertakings, with a “confirmed observe report of serious educational or scholarly contributions.”
On casting off the cap on appointments of contract trainer, Kumar mentioned that it was completed away with “to present some flexibility to increased instructional establishments contemplating the truth that in lots of state universities, there are lots of school vacancies and they’re making efforts to fill them up.”
“As soon as the state governments refill the vacancies, contract foundation appointments are anticipated to be much less,” he mentioned.
The overall circumstances for appointment of academics within the new draft rules additionally say that if the candidate’s topic on the undergraduate or postgraduate degree is completely different from the PhD topic, the candidate will likely be thought of eligible for appointment as a trainer within the topic during which they obtained the PhD. Moreover, if the candidate’s topic on the undergraduate or postgraduate degree is completely different from their topic in qualifying exams just like the NET or SET, the candidate will likely be eligible for appointment as a trainer within the topic during which they certified in these exams. The 2018 rules didn’t make such specs.
“This is a vital flexibility to take away inflexible topic boundaries and permit school candidates to transition throughout disciplines, making a extra multi-disciplinary eco-system inside college campuses as envisaged in NEP 2020,” Kumar mentioned.
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