While the Calicut University authorities are planning to start online and offline interviews to select faculty members for various departments within a month, a section of academics has found fault with the whole procedure.
The university had earlier issued a notification to appoint 24 professors, 29 associate professors, and 63 assistant professors. However, in the wake of the pandemic-induced restrictions, there was some confusion about the mode of interviews. The Union Ministry of Education on July 23 advised against online interviews for teaching posts. On August 25, the order was revised, saying filling of teaching and non-teaching posts should be deferred until the lockdown was lifted completely. It was reviewed again on September 2 to permit the online recruitment process. The Ministry, however, insisted that “full transparency is to be maintained” and “all eligible candidates are to be given fair and equal opportunity”.
Vice Chancellor M.K. Jayaraj told The Hindu that the recruitment would be in line with the guidelines of the University Grants Commission (UGC). “There will be both online and offline interviews. Candidates who cannot come here should request for the online process. Some of the interview panel members too may have to attend it online. We expect to begin the process within a month,” he said.
Meanwhile, P. Rasheed Ahmed, a Syndicate member aligned to the United Democratic Front, accused the authorities of violating norms in the verification of the applications for the teachers’ posts. In a letter to the Vice Chancellor, he said that the decision of a Syndicate sub-committee to accept hard copies of the applications was against the instructions given in the original notification. Mr. Ahmed pointed out that no particular date had been fixed for the completion of the verification of the application. The candidates might not be aware of the last date of verification and might not get to know about the decision to accept hard copies as it had not been circulated in the media, he added.
