Mita Mukherjee
The 2025 draft regulations of UGC are “undemocratic” and against the principles of federal structure, Bengal education minister said.
He said this after receiving the draft report of a eight-member committee that was set up by the state government to review the regulations. The draft will be submitted to the UGC as feedback after getting the final nod from chief minister, Mamata Banerjee.
The committee after examining the regulations has opposed 10 major points of the UGC draft regulations including the process of selecting vice-chancellors, the eligibility criteria of vice-chancellors and the criteria for promotion of college and university teachers. The committee has also suggested inclusion of chief minister and state government representative in the panels for appointing vice-chancellors.
“This draft is undemocratic. It goes against the principles of the federal structure. Education is in the concurrent list. Still there is an attempt to undermine the rights of the states. The committee was formed to examine how some states including Bengal are being targeted. For appointing VCs, the selection committees must have CM, representative of state government, along with Chancellor, UGC representatives and nominees from universities concerned. It is important to include the CM and state representative because, the state plays a vital role in the running of state universities including providing land, setting up the infrastructure and providing financial assistance,” the minister said.
The eight-member committee of the state has suggested five-member search-cum selection panel for appointing VCs instead of three as proposed in the UGC draft regulations.
The UGC has recently released revised rules which if approved would give state governors, also chancellors of state universities more powers in appointing VCs and allow experts from industry and public sector to be eligible for VC posts, a new system that would break the tradition of selecting only academicians as university heads.