The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) said on Wednesday the university’s intention to apply to be featured in the government’s proposed list of 20 “Institutions of Eminence” to achieve world class status would change the character of the university if it is granted.
JNUTA president Ayesha Kidwai said that there were serious reasons for concern if JNU made an application as the scheme had nothing to do with the University Grants Commission as all decisions would be taken by an “Empowered Experts Committee (EEC), which would comprise three to five persons appointed for a period of three years”.
‘Political appointees’
“The persons appointed to the EEC will be as advised by the Centre, with the approval of the Appointments Committee of Cabinet, which means the scheme is to be operationalised by out-and-out political appointees whose decisions will have political sanction alone and will not be constrained by even the regulatory framework of the UGC,” said Ms. Kidwai.
The JNUTA asked if JNU should “associate its future as an institution with a scheme in which there was virtually no scope of autonomy and practically no regulation of the regulators”. They said that the move would be “against the JNU Act that founded JNU”.
In a statement, the Association said that the scheme would drastically alter the composition of the JNU faculty, restricting the university’s ability to recruit the best from India as the scheme mandates the recruitment of foreigners as faculty which would be against the reservation policy with regards to faculty recruitment. The association pointed out that that the scheme would also lead to an exclusionary model of student admissions, in which social justice has no substantive part and massive fee hikes without any regulation.