The M. Phil programmes offered by the evening colleges of Madurai Kamaraj University have come under scanner for allegedly being in violation of norms stipulated by the University Grants Commission.
The evening colleges in Theni, Periyakulam, Dindigul, Palani and the one functioning in MKU College in Madurai city have been offering M. Phil programmes under various disciplines. However, concerns have been raised over the eligibility of these colleges to offer the programmes as they allegedly lack infrastructure and qualified guides.
Apart from restricting the number of research scholars an eligible faculty member can guide, the UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of M. Phil / Ph. D Degrees) Regulations of 2016, which was adopted by MKU last year, imposes number of conditions on the eligibility of institutions and guides for M. Phil programmes.
For instance, as per the regulations, a well-equipped library with books and subscriptions to national and international journals, research laboratories with sophisticated equipment, and presence of at least two recognised research guides are mandatory for an institution to offer M. Phil. Importantly, the regulation mandates that only a full-time regular staff with a minimum qualification of Ph. D and with adequate research experience and publication of original research output in peer-reviewed journals can be a research guide.
A Professor from MKU, who formerly held an administrative post, said that barring the evening college in Madurai, the remaining four colleges lacked their own buildings and mainly functioned in premises of other institutions like schools.
Similarly, it is also pointed out that none of these colleges have full-time regular staff. “Our college has a few, who work in the regular day college and also contribute for the evening college. That is not the case with other colleges,” P. Murugesan, an Associate Professor from MKU College, said. It can be recollected that more than thousand students were found to be pursuing M. Phil in Theni, Periyakulam, Dindigul and Palani colleges alone in an academic year, resulting in constitution of an enquiry by the university two years before.
A faculty member associated with one of these colleges said that a considerable number of students were school teachers, who become eligible for certain incentives in their salaries on completion of M. Phil. “They look at these evening colleges as an easy way to obtain the degree,” he said.
Refuting the allegation that the evening colleges were admitting students above the allowed strength, a senior official from MKU, however, said that whether these colleges can continue to offer M. Phil programmes was a policy decision that can be taken only after the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor.