Retract draft UGC norms, hold talks with states: Convention

T'puram: The state govt, which organized the national convention on draft UGC Regulations (2025) on Thursday, passed a unanimous resolution urging the Centre to withdraw the same and hold talks with state govts and higher education institutions before formulating new guidelines. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who inaugurated the convention, said Centre was undermining the spirit of cooperative federalism and using governors to undermine the authority of state legislatures.
"The draft regulations severely curtail the federal structure of the country by diminishing the role of states and by increasing central authority in matters related to state universities. As the principal stakeholder and prime investor in state public universities, state govts must be given a greater role in determining the administrative aspects of the universities," said the resolution.
Representatives from states run by non-BJP govts, political representatives of parties in the ruling and opposition sides and delegates from higher education institutions participated in the conclave. Barring Malayalam University vice-chancellor (VC) L Sushama, no other VCs attended the meeting.
The resolution urged the Centre to let state govts play a significant role in the selection and appointment of VCs, who are supposed to work in tandem with them. "Never in the history of state universities has UGC completely taken over the right to constitute the search-cum-selection committee for the appointment of VCs. The higher education regulator must desist from such authoritarian measures. As the supreme head of academic administration, the VC must have high academic credentials. So, the proposal to appoint non-academics as VCs must be dispensed with," said the resolution.
The resolution said UGC must not cross the limits of its legislated duty and purpose and it must uphold constitutional values by conforming to the confines of subordinate legislation. "The introduction of notable contributions as a criterion for appointment and career advancement of faculty will introduce arbitrariness into selection, giving undefined authority to selection committees and thus paving the way for allegations of favouritism and graft. These are not quantifiable and cannot be used as a measure of quality. Sowing doubt and aspersion into the selection process, the new criterion will only serve to diminish quality and therefore must be avoided," said the resolution, adding that UGC should give greater flexibility to states in the selection and appointment of faculties.
The resolution wanted UGC to desist from all attempts to curtail the academic autonomy of universities by insisting on academic content as mandatory criteria for compliance. It wanted UGC to drop its move to declare entrance examinations mandatory for admission to undergraduate courses.