The euphoria among guest lecturers in constituent colleges of Bharathidasan University to be designated as Assistant Professors, in the wake of a Syndicate resolution adopted recently, appears to be short-lived.
Days after the Syndicate approved the proposal unanimously for changing the nomenclature of the guest lecturers, the university finds itself bound by instructions of the Department of Higher Education issued at a subsequent meeting for takeover of the 10 constituent institutions for conversion as government arts and science colleges.
The BDU Syndicate had earlier decided to designate Guest Lecturers as Assistant Professors in deference to the demand articulated repeatedly in the meetings of the Senate
But, one of the three instructions to be followed by the universities prior to takeover for conversion is that there must be status quo on designation of staff. The other two conditions are 'no introduction of new courses' and 'collection of only government fee in the constituent colleges'.
In effect, there was no scope to implement the Syndicate resolution, Vice-Chancellor P. Manisankar said.
The change in nomenclature as Assistant Professors would have benefited the 362 guest lecturers in the 10 constituent colleges across the Central districts as those among them with Ph.D. qualification and higher duration of service would have been in a position to guide research scholars.
Otherwise, the salary ranging from ₹12,000 to ₹ 15,000 will remain the same.
The guest lecturers will continue to work in the constituent colleges till the teaching posts were filled up with regular staff by the government, Vice-Chancellors were told at a recent meeting convened by Principal Secretary of Higher Education Sunil Paliwal.
The universities have been given time till July 2 to submit the action-taken report on the conversion process.
The next review meeting to discuss the issue is slated for July 16.
