Is it violation of UGC norms/regulations or injustice with college teachers’?

New Delhi.

Subject: Injustice with college teachers’ in view of 4th Amendment, Regulations 2016

Sir,

We would like to bring to your kind notice some of the facts about the issue of UGC’s 4th amendment which was notified on July 11, 2016 and came into existence with immediate effect:

The UGC vide it’s amendment to University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) (4th Amendment), Regulations 2016, dated July 11, 2016 has notified that marks for API for the purpose of promotion and direct recruitment on account of publication in journals will be awarded only to research papers published in journals listed and approved by the UGC and Books published by Publishers with ISBN/ISSN number as approved by the University and posted on its website with intimation to UGC.

Those teachers whose promotion was due had already got their work published before the notification of 4th amendment as per the UGC guidelines prevailing at that time keeping in view their promotion in the upcoming years (After 6/5/4/3 years from date of appointment or after previous promotion depending on stage of promotion from stage 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 etc.), little knowing that the UGC would impose new conditions for Publication in future.

Even after 4th amendment came into existence on July 11, 2016 there was no list of Journals available for six months (till January 2017) and secondly even after repeated requests PU is yet to upload the lists of Publishers for book Publication in most of the subjects till date.

It is also pertinent to mention some teachers’ got their work published in the Journals as per the list provided by UGC but by the time they applied for promotion and claimed score of the published work, to their surprise Journals were removed by UGC from the list and again teachers’ are denied the due benefit without their fault.

Implementing the 4th amendment retrospectively is an irrational and unjust act and has made a large number of teachers’  suffer financially and mentally since publication is a time consuming and long drawn out process.

In view of the above firstly, the promotions of the affected teachers are on hold and they are compelled to earn the score again for promotion under CAS. Secondly, their assessment period for promotion under CAS will get extended till they acquire the score and their promotions are bound to get delayed and hence subsequent promotions will also be delayed as a result of which teachers’ will incur huge financial loss during complete length of service without any fault.

In our view 4th amendment can’t be implemented retrospectively and there should not have been any delay to provide the list of Journals and Publishers. Untill all the conditions listed in the 4th amendment are met by UGC and Universities, how can an amendment be imposed?

We, feel grave injustice is being done to teachers’ and 4th amendment should be kept in abeyance till Publishers’ are listed by university for all the subjects. In the meanwhile all the promotions under career advancement scheme should be done by considering the publication of work in Journals/Publishers having ISSN/ISBN as was being done before the implementation of 4th amendment. Benefit of Publications prior to the 4th amendment should definitely be given. The score should also be awarded to the work published in the Journal available in the UGC list at the time of publication, even if the name of the Journal is later removed by UGC from the list.

Thanking you.

Warm Regards!

Dr. Shaminder Singh Sandhu,

Member Senate and Syndicate Panjab University, Chandigarh.

Mob: 9872313570.

E.Mail: sandhu_sss@yahoo.com

Prof. Surinder Kaur,

Member Senate, Panjab University, Chandigarh.