*Move aims at improving higher education quality
*Merely NET/SET won’t make you varsity teachers
S M Inamdar
Aurangabad, May 5
No aspirant will be considered eligible for the post of assistant professor in universities without Ph D from July 2021 and the compulsion of the research degree has worried candidates aspiring to become university teachers. It may be noted that currently, a candidate who has cleared any eligibility test or Ph D is eligible to get assistant professor’s jobs in universities and affiliated senior colleges across the country. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has set the minimum qualifications for the appointment of teachers in universities and colleges in its new regulations. One of those regulations makes it compulsory for the candidates to have a Ph D degree while applying for an assistant professor’s post from July 2021 to improve quality in higher education institutions.
For teaching at colleges, one can have SET/NET or Ph D. The assistant professor is an entry-level designation for teaching in universities. A university should have research and teaching while colleges mostly conduct out teaching. Hundreds of candidates have qualified National Eligibility Test (NET) and State Eligibility Test (SET) to become a teacher at senior colleges and university departments. Some academicians feel that the new regulations would reduce opportunities for young teachers while others think that it will bring experienced teachers to universities.
Commenting on this, the president of Maharashtra Navpradhyapak Sanghatna Dr Sandeep Pathrikar said that thousands of posts of teaching staff are vacant in universities and colleges during the last eight to nine years across the State. New rules are being made. It will reduce the opportunities of many aspirants who have been waiting for the jobs for the past few years and will turn 40 soon. But, no Government is talking about the recruitment of teachers nor doing any survey of how many youths got jobs on completion of Ph D till today, he added.
A teachers union leader on the condition of anonymity, said that the decision is good that only Ph D holder will be eligible for the post of assistant professor in universities but, frequent change in norms can create a confusion and cause loss of time in one’s career. Ph D holder will have at least some knowledge of research against just a NET/SET qualified who lacks research experience. The UGC has also done away with the controversial Academic Performance Indicator (API)-based appraisal and introduced a simplified teacher evaluation grading system. The promotion in colleges up to associate professor level will be based on teaching-centric metrics and in universities, teaching and research-centric.