On Tuesday Panjab University Teacher’s Association (PUTA), discussed anomalies of the UGC Draft Regulations, 2018 on minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academic staff in universities and colleges. They offered suggestions to resolve these.
“At one point, it says selection of assistant professor shall be purely on the basis of performance in interview, while at another, it says the template for selections has to be devised by the university. An option for existing regulations has been given to pending cases, without specifying what the date of promotion in such cases will,” said PUTA president Rajesh Gill.
It was mentioned that the weightage given to academic record to shortlist candidates for the post of assistant professor is too high (80), with very low weightage given to research publications (10) and teaching experience (10). In case of two authors of a research publication, 50% of total value is given to each author, but in case of more than two authors, 70% is given to the first and 30% to each joint author. It is suggested that the distribution in both cases should be 70% and 30%.
“Scores given to research publications, especially edited books, has to be revised. The regulations are silent on co-editors in case of a book. To grant the benefit of continuous service, only the designation should be taken into account and not the salary paid, in view of the huge variation in salary paid by institutions,” said Gill.