(Excerpt from a statement by AISA)
The recent UGC gazette notification – UGC Regulations (3rd Amendment), 2016 – is actually a blueprint for massive JOB CUTS and outright DOWNGRADING of public-funded Higher Education and University system. This amendment in the UGC regulations of 2010, has serious and negative implications for both teaching community (both Permanent and Ad-Hoc) and students. The amendment, notified on 10 May 2016, has:
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(a) drastically increased the teaching hours for Assistant Professors from 16 Hours to 24 Hours Per Week and from 14 hours to 22 hours per week for Associate Professors,
(b) devalued the tutorial classes for Humanities and Social Sciences, which until now, was an important feature of class room learning and a great boon to students from deprived backgrounds,
(c) For Science courses, from now on a 2 hour of practical class will count as just 1 hour of lecture classes.
Job Cut for Ad Hoc Teachers and Young Scholars: For the permanent faculty this will clearly mean a 50% increase in work load; and automatically for the current Ad-Hoc faculty, it will simply mean a severe decline in job prospects. More than 70% ad hoc faculties can lose their jobs in the next session. Currently there are almost 4000 vacant posts in Delhi University alone, filled mainly by research scholars. The anti-student, anti-teacher and overall anti-education stance of this present government is clearly reflected in this move, as instead of filling the already vacant positions in DU, they are cutting down the number of teaching posts.
Down Grading of Teaching Quality : The severe increase in working hours for teaching community will also have drastic consequences for student community. Firstly, it will lead to worsening of the teacher-student ratio as the number of teachers will come down. Secondly, because of increment in workload, the QUALITY OF TEACHING WILL BE AFFECTED NEGATIVELY, as teachers will be forced to teach more courses in a limited time period. Lastly these changes will have extremely negative impact on students, especially for those coming from deprived socio-economic background (who might need special attention) as the prospect of engagement between teacher and student will decline because of increased workload.
Elimination of Reservation Backlog: This decision is also reflective of the anti-reservation mindset of the BJP government, as most of the current vacancies belong to the reserved category not filled for years. Immediate filling of the backlog has been a long standing demand of AISA and many other organisations. But, instead of filling the backlog, the UGC and MHRD are conspiring to abolish the teaching posts all-together!
The UGC Notification is a direct consequence of the massive 55% fund-cuts for the UGC in the Union Budget of 2016-17 (from Rs 9315.45 cr. in 2015-16 to Rs. 4286.94 cr. in 2016-17). The UGC gazette is merely the ‘software’ required to implement the agenda of killing public funding in higher education and pushing for privatization.
The UGC Gazette Notification (May 2016) is also in the line MHRD’s undeclared war on Universities which include:
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• Drastic fund cut of UGC and Universities
• Intervention in courses and syllabus to saffronize and undermine the autonomy of Universities
• Direct targeting and police action on opposing teachers and students like FTII, HCU, JNU, BHU etc.
Just last year, the UGC under the diktats of MHRD tried to cut down the Non-Net fellowship for research scholars. This was met with severe student-teacher resistance. Once again, let us be prepared to resist this anti-education move by the Modi Government in every manner until the Government withdraws the UGC notification in toto and fills the huge backlog and increases the budget for education.
