Should the retirement age of principals of self-financing colleges be 62 or 65 – this is the question that appears to be on top of the minds of Bharathiar University administrators. At the last Syndicate meeting, held at the University on May 18, this question cropped.
Sources, who attended the meeting, said a few members raised the issue notwithstanding the fact that the Department of Higher Education in its Government Order 325 dated August 18, 2003 had categorically stated that the retirement age of principals in self-financing colleges should be only 62 years.
When Bharathiar University passed a resolution to relax the age limit to 65 years by way of a Syndicate meeting resolution in September 2017, Department Secretary Sunil Paliwal had written to the University Registrar on March 24, 2018 asking the University to stick to the GO.
The sources said that for the second time, a few members raised the issue in the latest syndicate meeting because relaxing the retirement age by three years helped principals of five self-financing colleges continue in their post and one among those was in the Syndicate as well.
They pointed out that the Madras High Court had not once but twice upheld the GO and all other State universities had enforced it. Therefore it was wrong on the part of Bharathiar University to seek relaxation of the age limit.
Representatives of managements of self-financed colleges say that even in the present set up, faculty and principals of State Government-run and government-aided colleges, on retirement, land as principals of self-financed institutions, thus affecting the prospects of faculty who had risen through the ranks in such colleges. They add that even 62 years as retirement age is not agreeable to certain sections of the academic community because in government-run and government-aided colleges, the retirement age is 58 years. To put a lid on the controversy, the Department of Higher Education should bring about a uniformity in the retirement age.
Head of the Principals’ Association of colleges under Bharathiar University K. Karunakaran says that the Association will take a call on the issue after its general body meeting, scheduled for May 29. As of now, it wants the University to stick to 62 years as retirement age.
Sources in the Vice-Chancellor committee of the University say that the Syndicatehas decided to write to the government again seeking clarification and relaxation, if possible.
