UGC issues guidelines for recruitment; asks universities to fill 3 lakh teaching post

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NATIONAL | June 5, 2019:

A deadline of six months have been given to all the universities and colleges to fill up their faculty vacancies, via a process that will be monitored at every step by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and the University Grants Commission (UGC). Institutions which fail to meet the deadline were warned that their UGC grants may be withheld.

Pushing recruitment into mission mode, UGC secretary Rajnish Jain issued a direction and had asked all universities,colleges, and institutions deemed to be universities to "adhere to the guidelines in letter and spirit.

In total, there are 3 lakh vacancies in government-run higher education institutions. The University Grants Commission issued guidelines on Tuesday asking these institutions to identify vacancies within 15 days and complete the process in 180 days.

As per the guidelines, identification of vacancies, permission from competent authorities to fill them, and their advertisement should be done in the next 60 days.

During the same time period, institutions have to constitute selection committee, schedule dates for selection committee meetings and for scrutiny of applications. The Commission has asked the universities/ colleges/ institutions to conduct the interviews by October 2019, and get required approval and issue appointment letters by November 2019.

Higher education institutions have been asked to "ensure that all vacant posts, along with reservations details, are uploaded on
the online portal, www. Nherc.in".

"The filling up of vacancies include all government-run institutions.
The monitoring of the process would be done by MHRD and UGC through this portal," said the official.

According to government sources, MHRD has also launched a portal to monitor the process. A senior government official said the matter has been taken as a priority and it was decided during the first review meeting of higher education taken by new HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on Monday.

The filling up of the vacancies had been stuck for a long time. While the government brought an ordinance on March 7, 2019 restoring the old reservation policy, the decision came too late as the term of the government ended and General Elections were announced.

The appointments were on hold since March 2018, after the Allahabad High Court in 2017 asked the universities to treat departments and not the university as a unit for according reservations in teaching position.

The central reservation policy mandates a 15% quota for SC, 7.5% for ST and 27% for OBC, which has been applied from 2005, taking all vacant teaching posts of a particular rank in an institution as one unit. But the revision, in light of the HC order to consider a department — and not the university — as a unit, resulted in a decrease in the number of posts.

Under pressure from teacher groups the Centre moved an SLP and a review petition in the Supreme Court against the HC's decision, which were also dismissed. The UGC, meanwhile, placed the appointments on hold for the duration of the SLP. After the dismissal of the SLP, the Centre brought in an ordinance in March 2019 to undo the HC's order.