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HRD, UGC unlikely to give breather to pre-2009 PhD holders | | | S Tahir-ul Haq
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Feb 22: The Human Resource Development Ministry headed by Smriti Irani and the University Grants Commission have stated that they are unlikely to review the Supreme Court judgment that debars many PhD holders from teaching jobs. "On March 16 last year, the apex court upheld the University Grants Commission (UGC's) regulations of 2009 on minimum qualification for appointment of teachers in colleges and universities," said sources. Sources said that according to the regulations, the eligibility for assistant professor in a college or a university is the National Eligibility Test or the State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) qualifications. Sources said that a candidate who has a PhD that complies with the UGC's PhD norms of 2009 would be eligible for the post even if he has not cleared NET or SLET. "The UGC had in 2009 provided for admission through entrance test and course work before working on the thesis. It was also laid down that a teacher cannot guide more than eight PhD students and five M Phil students at any point in time. Before this, every university had its own PhD regulations," said sources. Sources said that the 2009 order threatened the careers of thousands of existing PhD holders who had not cleared NET/SLET, according to the latest regulations. The UGC last year decided to amend its regulations to grant an exemption to the pre-2009 PhD holders and amended regulations were sent to the HRD ministry, which has not yet granted approval. "Ruling in a case filed by a few PhD holders, the apex court held that the HRD ministry and UGC are the highest policy makers and their norms must be followed. Since no assessment has been done to ascertain if any universities were following the UGC's 2009 norms for PhDs, it is not clear which of the pre-2009 PhD holders can be granted exemption from NET/SLET," said sources. Sources further said that the rationale behind this is that teachers need to clear an eligibility exam which credits their teaching ability and that a PhD does not automatically qualify the same ability. They said that it has been learnt that the representative of HRD ministry and UGC officials gave the impression that they may not seek any review of the court decision. However, sources said that, 'Nigavekar Committee' was formed by the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) to examine whether PhD candidates can be exempted from clearing the national eligibility test or not which is a criterion for the teachers' appointment. |
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