PHD not required for teachers in varsities’ administrative bodies

To bring more quality and experience into two academic bodies of the Maharashtra’s public universities, the state government has raised the bar for teachers who want to be part of these bodies. The elected teachers who make up academic council and boards of studies (which take care of academic affairs of university) are required to have authored two books or have published three research papers in peer-reviewed journals.

However, the government has removed the PHD criterion for academic positions in senate and management council — the two other decision-making bodies which deal with the administrative affairs — if they have 15 years of teaching experience.

Unlike the previous norms, under which the principals in the senate had to have 15 years of five years as principal, there’s no experience criterion specified in the new notification, which was issued last Friday under the Maharashtra Public Universities Act 2016. The notification will replace the norms specified in a state government ordinance issued in September 2009.

The new rules require all teachers in academic council and board of studies to be PHD holders with 15 years of teaching experience. Till now, the required experience was limited to 10 years, including three years as head of their respective college departments. The criterion of research papers was limited to varsity deans, who also are members of academic bodies.

According to RS Mali, former vice-chancellor of North Maharashtra University, who heads the committee drafting the statutes for new the universities act, the objective of the new criteria is to bring in people who can improve teaching and evalua ation: to enhance quality of the members in governing bodies. We want people with more exposure and confidence, better information technology skills and innovation to be a part of these bodies,” he said.

Mali denied that the government had diluted the criteria for senate and management council.

Rohini Sivabalan, president of Bombay University and College Teachers Union, welcomed the move to remove PHD criterion for administrative bodies. She added that the stringent criteria for teachers for academic bodies will have little bearing on their electoral prospects. “Unlike before, nowadays there’s no dearth of PHD teachers who have published papers. We have many senior teachers in our rank and file,” she said.

For the past two years, varsities have been functioning without full-fledged governing bodies. They are now waiting for the statutes or by laws pertaining