While the ongoing appointment of assistant professors since 2020 is yet to be completed and is saddled with hundreds of court cases, the move for fresh appointments in the state universities with new rules involving a written test has triggered a debate.
The new draft ‘statute for the appointment of assistant professors, prepared during the tenure of former governor Arif Mohammad Khan, has been circulated by the chancellor’s secretariat among the vice-chancellors for their opinion, while new Bihar Governor Lt Gen (Rtd) Sayed Ata Hasnain, who was also the chancellor of Central University of Kashmir, is set to be sworn in on Saturday. He reached Patna on Thursday. Khan was shifted suddenly.
The draft statute has proposed a discriptive type three-hour written test based on NET syllabus. It will carry 160 marks, while 40 marks will be for interview. The shortlisting of candidates for the interview will be based on their performance in the written examination conducted after all-India advertisement.
For each post, the number of candidate to be shortlisted for the interview shall be in the ratio of 1:3 from the subject concerned , based on their merit in the written exam. The minimum qualifying percentage will be 50%. For Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Persons with Disabilities (PWD) candidates, it will be 45%.
The proposed higher age limit in the draft has been reduced to 45 years from 55 years earlier.
Quality concern
However, the new provisions in the draft statute have already triggered a debate and apprehension due to past experiences, when allegations of corruption and arbitrariness led to a lot of controversies and court cases. One of the key reservations is giving 20% weightage to interview and not exempting those from written test who have already cleared UGC-NET/CSIR.
“The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts UGC-NET/CSIR twice a year, generally limits the number of qualified candidates for assistant professor to the top 6% of the total candidates appearing in both papers. Rest who qualify are only eligible for PhD. That is a good benchmark. That way, there is no reason to make them take another state-level test, the sanctity of which is not known, as it will make the standardised national-level test meaningless,” said senior IAS officer and former UGC financial advisor SK Singh.
He said the evaluation of descriptive type answers would also make it difficult for standardisation and uniformity in marking and could trigger more controversies due to scope of arbitrariness and foul play.
Another senior former UGC functionary, who is now with a Central University and did not want to be quoted, said since 2018, there had been grading of universities at the national level in three categories and that should also be given due weightage if quality was to be maintained, just as it was given in case of foreign universities. “Why differential between our best and foreign institutions? A doctorate from Category-1 institution should not be equated with category-3 or uncategorised institutions if there is any seriousness to ensure quality intake,” he added.
Integrity & sanctity
Prof Shankar Dutt, retired professor at Patna University and one who has been to selection committees at Central universities and different states, said no system would work without people with integrity at the helm and after so much controversy, there should be an attempt to ensure maximum transparency and minimum chances of tampering.
“UGC-NET/CSIR is a standardised test despite its limitations. Descriptive type test can be a good option and there was a descriptive paper earlier in UGC-NET/CSIR, but it was removed later on. Going by past experiences maintaining the sanctity of descriptive test is easier said than done. All the answers would have to be put online even if the exams are held cleanly. The best way is to adopt the Central university model, where the screening committee takes a view on the academic record, research and quality of PhD of UGC-NET/CSIR/Ph.D qualified candidates with transparent marking and the selection committee decides on shortlisted candidates in the interview,” he added.
Former V-C Nalanda University Pankaj Mohan expressed concern over such administrative moves in a big post. “As long as corruption prevails, such administrative reforms will not have any significant impact. If the committee constituted for the interview is corrupt, it can use 40 marks assigned for interview to make or mar the prospects of candidates,” he said.
He said as long as the members of the committee “are trapped in the mire of casteism, communalism, narrow politics or corruption, rigging will continue”.
On the other hand, some candidates are worried that the PhD awarded by Bihar institutions would not carry any weightage. In 2015, Bihar had made strict norms for appointment of assistant professors and made PhD as per the 2009 UGC regulations mandatory, which had rendered many candidates with doctorate degrees from state universities ineligible, but in 2020 it got diluted to make room for doctorates from the state.
Domicile issue
Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) also cited the 2018 UGC regulations to underline that introducing a test for those having cleared UGC-NET/CSIR for assistant professors was a clear deviation from the established norms. It had also sought domicile policy, interview weightage of just 10% and importance to research work to usher in transparency and trust, which took a severe beating in the ongoing process. It has also threatened agitation if the draft was not improved.
In a pre-election announcement, CM Nitish Kumar had in August last year announced preference to domicile in school teachers’ recruitment, and aspirants want it to be replicated in universities also.
A former V-C said the statute had been made by a vice-chancellors’ committee appointed by the chancellor and now the opinion had also been sought from the V-Cs.
“How can V-Cs give any adverse opinion on the statute prepared by them or fellow V-Cs? Besides, the quality of most doctorates from the state universities is not hidden from anyone and there is no mechanism to give weightage to those having not done PhD as per prescribed norms from reputed high category institutions,” he added.
The problem, he said, arose due to question mark over the quality of doctorates, as the thesis were not uploaded on Shodhganga repository within 30 days of the successful completion of the evaluation process and the announcement of the award of the PhD. degree to make it public, accessible, and reduce plagiarism, as per the UGC mandate. However, the UGC had officially removed the requirement to publish a research paper in peer-reviewed journals before submitting the PhD thesis, though published research work will add value.
“Based on the experience of teachers of Bihar universities while teaching in refresher and induction courses and taking some classes in PhD coursework, I can say that the decline in higher education has found its level. There is no room left to fall further and effort should be not only to make it transparent and fair, but also make it appear so. Unfortunately, there is always concern about appointment of assistant professors becoming a victim of corruption,” said former professor and chairperson of the Aparna centre of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
Unending process
Consistently embroiled in one controversy after another, the appointment process of assistant professors has lingered beyond five years for the second time and has also evoked sharp criticism from the HC.
Due to inordinate delay, the appointments have hardly made any significant change in the health of seriously understaffed universities due to regular retirements and none finding place in the NIRF ranking. Even today, the working strength in state universities is estimated to be barely around 6,000 against the old sanctioned strength of 13,000.
BSUSC had advertised 4,638 vacancies of assistant professors in 52 subjects on September 23, 2020, just ahead of the announcement of state polls. The previous recruitment process through BPSC had also lingered for around five years.
