Professors of IIMs and IITs have come together for the first time to reject the latest proposals of the Human Resource Development Ministry on pay scales and autonomy, terming them an “infringement” on academic freedom.
The faculties are working on a joint charter of demands to be submitted to Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal. The demands include pay hike and more autonomy.
“It is for the first time that IIT and IIM professors are sitting down to discuss what is there in the Sixth Pay Commission, and how it is affecting us,” according to Bharat Sheth, a professor of the IIT, Mumbai.
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The IIM-Ahmedabad faculty council met in Ahmedabad on Saturday and opposed the Ministry’s order on pay structure. It asked the institute director to delay its implementation by a month.
“The faculty council has termed the recent orders on pay structure an infringement on academic freedom and asked the institute director to postpone its implementation by a month,” a senior faculty council member said after the meeting.
The council voiced disappointment over the Ministry’s response to the demand for a pay increase made earlier by the IIM and IIT professors. The IIM-Ahmedabad has also decided to take up the issue with other IIMs and IITs and premier institutions like the IISc., Bangalore.
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