UGC’s advisory on reservation roster raises questions on implementation

Sometimes, even in govt. colleges rules couldn’t be followed, says professors

The University Grants Commission has issued an advisory to registrars of institutions to strictly comply with the reservation rules of the Central government. Institutions have been instructed to upload and update the reservation roster on their websites periodically.

The universities must also ensure that the roster system is followed by colleges affiliated to it. The institutions are expected to upload data pertaining to students as well as faculty and non-teaching staff.

University professors say the reservation roster is followed strictly by State-run universities and its departments, constituent colleges and government colleges in admission of students. With colleges offering two shifts, even in government colleges concerns about reservation roster for faculty had been raised.

The UGC’s periodic advisory cannot be applied to self-financing colleges as they face many hurdles, say professors. The high faculty attrition and the offer of new courses are two major factors.

A journalism professor in a State university gave the example of how when Visual Communication was introduced 15 years ago there were not enough faculty to teach the subject. The universities permitted colleges to recruit faculty, by relaxing not only reservation norms but also qualification requirements, in the interest of students. Fifteen years later, the relaxation on qualification requirement was revoked. “But not any more. Now there is a sufficient pool of teachers,” he pointed out.

Several violations

At Anna University it is a different situation, however. Senior faculty point to several violations in student admissions as well. “So far, even admission details have not been made transparent. Over the years candidates have been admitted under the NRI quota based on the approval of the Syndicate. Where the class strength must be 60, it has been violated to admit as many as 10 or 12 more students. The explanation is that students might vacate the seat when they get a preferred course in either medicine or one of the IITs. These seats are then allotted to the NRIs,” a faculty explained.

Sometime ago, the appointment of 200 faculty over a period of a decade raised concerns as not only was the reservation roster system violated but the appointments did not follow even the mandated qualification requirement.

“Until recently we did not follow even the All India Council of Technical Education norms. It is only now that the university is applying for NAAC and NBA accreditation. Each department must apply independently. Now we are required to provide the details which will be verified by the accreditation authorities,” said a senior professor.