A number of self-financing colleges affiliated to Bharathidasan University are not facilitating their faculty members to upgrade their qualifications as prescribed by the University Grants Commission, due to fear that they would have to spend more on salaries, it is learnt.
These institutions are least bothered about the emphasis of National Assessment and Accreditation Committee on quality of higher education, according to teachers’ organisations.
There is a mandatory requirement for self-financing colleges affiliated to Bharathidasan University to have at least 75% of teachers with either a pass in NET/SLET or Ph.D qualification on their rolls. But the norm is not followed in many colleges, since the private managements generally tend to think that candidates with PG and M.Phil qualifications can be given meagre salaries, unlike the qualified candidates. In most of the self-financing arts and science colleges, the monthly salary for a teacher does not exceed ₹10,000.
Those with NET/SLET and Ph.D. need to be paid a few thousands of rupees more. The managements, hence, prefer to have unqualified candidates, A.R. Nagarajan, Advisor, The NET/SLET Association, said.
New recruits in the self-financing colleges, eager to register for their doctorate programmes, face the ignominy of having to wait indefinitely till their senior colleagues in their respective departments complete their Ph.D., it is learnt.
As far as the university is concerned, the faculty members in affiliated colleges without the requisite qualifications are not recognised for the purposes of valuation or setting question paper or any other purpose, Vice-Chancellor P. Manisankar said.
The practice of the self-financing colleges imposing restrictions on young faculty members desirous of registering for Ph.D. programmes had not come to the notice of the university so far, Prof. Manisankar said, adding that the university would take definite action, if complaints were made by aggrieved teachers.
As per UGC’s revised guidelines for enhancement of rates of honorarium of guest faculty members appointed against sanctioned posts in aided colleges, ₹ 1,500 per lecture must be paid, subject to a maximum of ₹50,000 a month.
But the self-financing colleges feel emboldened to pay meagre salaries to the teachers as there is no specific UGC guideline on salary component for the unaided colleges, an aggrieved teacher said.