UGC notice ‘nullifies’ DU order on guest faculty appointment

DUTA protests on as wording of UGC notice hardly changes situation.

 

New Delhi: Following massive protests by teachers of Delhi University (DU) colleges, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has come up with a fresh notice to replace the DU administration’s order to appoint guest faculty instead of absorption of a fleet of 4,500 existing ad-hoc faculty members.

Though the UGC issued the new communication on 19 December to “nullify” the DU’s 28 August 2019 notice, the language of the UGC letter seems to be giving enough room to the DU administration for carrying out appointments of guest faculty. This is the reason that the DUTA is not willing to give up its protest.

The UGC letter states that the commission has decided to replace the DU’s 28 August letter. The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting held in the office of the Secretary (Higher Education), Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), Shahtri Bahwan, on 5 December. In the meeting, the issues pertaining to ad-hoc teachers and other matters of DU were discussed.

DU teachers under the banner of Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) had launched massive protests against the DU’s 28 August letter. The protesting teachers had even occupied the Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi’s office.

In another round of protests, the teachers had launched a sit-in dharna outside the UGC office on 18 December and the dharna is still on. Also, the DUTA General Body Meeting has resolved to observe boycott of evaluation of answer sheets as the DUTA thinks that its demands are still unresolved. 

The UGC letter says that as per point 2 of the Record of Discussion, it was decided that circular dated 28.08.2019 issued by the Delhi University to all the Principals/Directors of the colleges shall be replaced by the following: “The college/institution shall fill up the permanent vacancies in a time-bound manner. During the interim period, if vacancies which have to be filled for maintaining smooth academic functioning of the colleges/institutions, ad-hoc/temporary/contract/guest faculty can be appointed until the permanent faculty is recruited.”

Rajesh Jha, Delhi University’s Executive Council member told The Sunday Guardian: “We want total absorption of the existing ad-hoc faculty. The appointment of guest teaching staff will be like an injustice with more than 4,500 ad-hoc teachers involved in various DU colleges. It would be illegal to throw them out of their jobs. The ad-hoc teachers have contributed as much as the permanent ones; therefore, the UGC and DU administrations should speed up the permanent appointment of ad-hoc teachers,”

Currently, the DU has are more than 4,500 who are working on ad-hoc capacity and their tenure is renewed every four months. Unfortunately, this year, the tenure of only a few ad-hoc teachers was renewed. 

The protesting teachers are demanding nothing less than permanent appointment and absorption of the existing ad-hoc teaching faculty.