UGC Directive to DU May Lead to Faculty Shortage in Varsity
The University Grants Commission’s (UGC) mid-June directive to Delhi University on National Eligibility Test (NET) exemption for prospective undergraduate teachers with an MPhil or PhD degree might mean that the DU students will continue to face faculty shortage when they return on July 17.
Many colleges which received the DU notification dated June 29 only in the last week of June or earlier this month had to issue corrigendums to their earlier advertisement inviting fresh applications. Some had to cancel or postpone interviews.
Said V K Yadav, principal, Maharaja Agrasen College: “We had finalised only two recruitments when the letter arrived. Now with the process starting afresh, it might take close to a month for us to get dates from the selection committee members and convene the panel. We are once more left with no alternative but to resort to ad hoc faculties for the six vacancies we had earlier planned to fill by the start of the academic session.
Agreed dean of colleges, Shirin Rathore: “The directive which reached us on June 14 created a lot of confusion. That has finally been sorted out but the corrigendum and fresh applications
would mean some delay in appointments.”
Several colleges like Zakir Husain, Moti Lai Nehru and Delhi College of Arts and Commerce had to postpone their interviews scheduled in early July. Others like Swami Shraddhanand are facing pressure from its own staff association to cancel or review appointments made after June 14 when the UGC notification arrived.
With an estimated 100 recruitments in various colleges hanging fire, the situation has been further complicated by a court case where one candidate has demanded that all recruitments that happened between June 23 and 29 be cancelled on the ground that on June 23 the university had information about the UGC directive.
Said J L Gupta, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma (ARSD) faculty member and a former member of DU’s academic and executive councils, “Many candidates recruited during the period have already submitted their joining reports. Even if DU had information about the directive on June 23, the circular to colleges could not have gone before approval by the statutory bodies. To add to our troubles, there is apparently also a fresh UGC directive against ad hoc appointments.”
Among the colleges that could find its recruitments cancelled if the appellant’s contention holds, is Shri Ram College of Commerce. Said commerce head of the department Anil Kumar, “We had already issued letters to the selected candidates by June 25, till which time we had no intimation from the university. It’s not the college’s fault.”
Another fact that had initially added to the confusion was the UGC’s recruitment deadline of June 30. Said Moti Lai Nehru principal R C Sharma, “That has now been extended to September 30, but the start-of-session target * we had for recruitments has / definitely been missed.”
Source: The Times of India
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