UGC’s Draft Regulations—violative of rules and anti-federal | P.S. Jayaramu

January 16, 2025

The University Grants Commission ( UGC) recently came up with a draft regulation which covers many important aspects connected with higher education and its governance statures. Its key features need o be dissected.

At the outset, it must be underlined that the draft regulations are outside UGC’s jurisdiction, especially in so far as the appointment of Vice Chancellors of public universities are concerned. These are matters which fall in the legislative domain of the Union and State Governments, as education is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution. UGC is only a regulatory body, which also should have been wound up by now going by the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 guidelines. That the same has not happened speaks volumes of the clout of the UGC’s bureaucracy aided and abetted by the Central Government itself.

Let me first offer my comments on the draft regulation’s intention to make compliance by the universities with the NEP guidelines for eligibility for the Commission’s support- financial and otherwise. This is a provision the Central Government may have forced the UGC to include to make the State Universities which have either rejected the NEP or made significant modifications to it to retain their autonomy in the framing and management of higher education’s curricula and governance mechanisms. By indirectly inserting such provisions in the UGC’S draft regulations, the Central Government is trying to belittle the States. No wonder, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and West Bengal have registered their strong protests over such ‘policy machinations’.

The UGC’s emphasis on NAAC accreditation with a specified grade is also not in the best of spirits given the differences in the grades obtained by higher educational institutions depending on factors like the absence of physical and human-resource infrastructures of institutions located in undeveloped and inaccessible parts of the country. In any case, UGC’s thinking is not in conformity with the change NAAC has decided to bring about regarding accreditation. The Council is moving to descriptions like accredited and not accredited. The UGC, has of course, stated that it wants to strengthen the academic and managerial content of higher education by bringing in certain fresh norms for the evaluation of HEIs. Clearly, these are issues which call for wider debate in academia and not forced down the throats of States. Additionally, UGC’s ‘rule’ that universities which include Indian knowledge systems in their broader compass, while on its own may not be undesirable, points to the Central Government’s goal of imposing its hidden agenda on the States. Quite unnecessarily, the UGC is getting into such areas which are beyond its domain.

It is however the ideas contained in UGC’s draft regulations regarding the appointment of Vice-Chancellors which are outside the guidelines prescribed by the NEP 2020 and more importantly anti-federal as the non-BJP Chief Ministers have pointed out.

Let me elaborate the issues involved in some detail. The NEP has clearly mentioned in the section dealing with Governance Structures that the appointment of Vice Chancellors is to be done by the Board of Governors (BOGs) of the Central and State Universities, consisting of experts, stating clearly that the Central and State Governments should be kept out of VCs appointment process. This is a laudable position the NEP took. But, unfortunately, even the Central Universities are not following this norm. As is wel known, the Central Government is controlling the process of appointment of VCs through the Education ministry. As a result, by and large, persons who are palatable to the ruling government, ideologically and otherwise, are occupying such pivotal positions.

In so far as State Universities are concerned, governments are having their way as they constitute the Search cum Selection Committees, with the State’s nominee being made the Chairperson the Committee. The SSC has a Governor/ Chancellor’s nominee, the concerned University’s nominee and a UGC nominee, with the Chancellor finally approving a name from a panel recommended by the SSC. Many State Governments have passed legislation taking away the role of the Chancellor from the appointment process. The UGC’s draft regulations take away the role of the State Governments by vesting the power of appointment of VCs with the Chancellors, though of course keeping the university and UGC nominees as members. Here lies the catch, viz, the motive of the Central Government. If the regulations are approved, as apprehended by non-BJP-ruled States and many neutral and professional academicians, the Central Government will indirectly control the appointment of VCs in State Universities.

In the interests of maintaining the academic atmosphere free from political and ideological influences, it is best if the NEP 2020 guidelines are totally adhered to in the appointment of VCs. The million-dollar question is: will the the Central and State authorities agree to abide by such norms, especially the BJP-led coalition government, which brought out the NEP 2020, by keeping aside their own narrow Political and ideological interests in order to keep our higher educational flag flying high and to compete with global educational standards and vision?

(Author : Prof. P. S. Jayaramu is former Dean, Faculty of Arts, Bangalore University and former Senior Fellow, ICSSR, New Delhi)