Criticism of Draft UGC Regulations 2025

• Autonomy and Federalism Concerns: The draft regulations are criticized for undermining university autonomy, state powers, and federal principles.

Regulation Goals and Current Issues

• Regulations should protect HEIs from political interference, ensure administrative accountability, and uphold autonomy.
• Current proposals in the 2025 regulations threaten these objectives if adopted without changes.

Specific Provisions in the Draft

• Ideological and Market Focus: Clause 3.8 shifts academic focus towards specific ideological and market-driven objectives, like Indian Knowledge Systems and Startups.
• Promotion Criteria: Clause 4.1 (iii) introduces barriers for assistant professors with over 10 years of experience, requiring them to serve as associate professors for three years before applying for professorships.
• Quota and Hierarchy: Only 10% of professors at Level 14 can be promoted to Level 15, introducing unnecessary quotas and potentially undermining faculty morale.

Concerns About Promotion Process

• Current regulations require timely processing of promotions with backdating, ensuring fairness.
• Clause 5.6 removes backdating provisions, allowing delays without accountability, penalizing faculty.

Publishing and Promotion Standards

• Reinstates criteria for books and chapters, exempting college teachers from journal publication requirements for promotions.
• Frequent changes in scholarly publishing standards disrupt academic career planning.

Legislative and Structural Reforms

• The NEP 2020 proposed replacing UGC with a Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), but implementation delays persist.

Pay Structure and Implementation

• Pay structures linked to Central Pay Commissions; Clause 1.3 sets the implementation date to January 1, 2016, reflecting outdated references.

Recruitment Issues and Affirmative Action

• Concerns about ideological appointments and a lack of representation for SC, ST, and OBC candidates.
• Use of NFS (not found suitable) in recruitment undermines affirmative action.

Recommendations for Draft Evaluation

• Government should evaluate the draft regulations based on constitutional parameters to ensure fairness and representation.