MADURAI
As Madurai Kamaraj University steps up pressure on its affiliated colleges, asking them to ensure that all their teaching staff adhere to qualification norms prescribed by the University Grants Commission, confusion prevails regarding the operation of self-financing courses.
A circular sent by MKU’s Registrar V. Chinniah on June 4 reiterates strongly that the engagement of teachers who do not possess the qualifications as per UGC norms will lead to disaffiliation of the courses.
The pressure comes after the Madras High Court raised objections to non-compliance of its 2014 order on this issue, based on a contempt petition filed by retired professor M. Anandakrishnan.
The court had earlier directed the MKU, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University and the University of Madras to ensure adherence to UGC norms.
According to the UGC, any college employing a teaching staff must ensure that the person either possessed a Ph.D. or had cleared National Eligibility Test (NET) or State-level Eligibility Test (SET).
MKU Vice Chancellor V. Krishnan explained that the university had placed the responsibility on the self-financing colleges to ensure that their teachers possessed the required qualification.
“We are only passing on instructions from the High Court regarding compliance,” he said.
General Secretary of Madurai Kamaraj University Aided and Self-Financing Colleges Management, S. Rajagopal, said that heads of many self-financing colleges received information regarding qualifications only three months ago.
“We had approached the Vice-Chancellor one month ago regarding the need for at least five years time to ensure that teachers can either obtain their Ph.Ds or clear the NET or SET exam in time,” he said.
He added that it would be impossible to run colleges if the court decided to allow student admissions based on teacher qualification. “We have sought a legal opinion on ways to take the case forward,” he said.
R. Murali, convenor, Save Higher Education Movement - Tamil Nadu, said that teachers should be given a maximum of six months to clear SET exams after a crash course is provided by the State government.
“It is pertinent to have qualified teaching staff. Those without qualifications are often treated poorly and are exploited. That attitude will change only if minimum qualifications are enforced,” he said.
