THE New Year 2025 started with another assault on the education system. The Modi government, through the UGC, announced new draft regulations titled, ‘University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment and Promotion of Teachers and Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education)’. This is yet another attempt by the central government to assume control over all the higher education institutions in the country.
According to the UGC, there are 56 central universities and 481 state universities. Through these regulations, the central government is appropriating the right to appointment of vice chancellors even for the state universities and decide how they are run. This is a direct attack on the principle of federalism, an important feature of our Constitution.
The draft regulations prescribe the mode of appointment of the vice chancellors in all universities in the country. These regulations change the composition of the search and select committee that is constituted for the selection and appointment of the VCs. Till date, the committee constituted of three persons – a nominee of the UGC, a nominee of the chancellor as recommended by the state government and a nominee of the syndicate/senate/executive council of the university.
The new draft changes the composition in favour of the central government by denying any role for the state government in the process. The right of the state governments is taken away and given to the governor-cum-chancellor, who is a representative of the central government. This is an attempt to not only centralise the process of appointment, but also aims to impose persons sympathetic to the BJP-RSS as VCs of the universities. In Kerala, we already have the instance where the then governor overrode the recommendation of the search and select committee and appointed an RSS sympathiser as vice chancellor.
The unilateral National Education Policy (NEP) proclaimed by the BJP government laid the path for centralisation and communalisation of Indian education system. It is rightly opposed by both the teachers and students, who are the primary participants in the education system. The draft regulations intend to take forward this policy direction of the NEP.
Since the BJP formed the central government, it has been targetting universities and higher educational institutes to implement its communal agenda. As part of its attempts to capture all important positions of the State, it started appointing Hindutva elements, though they are clearly not eligible for such positions. In the states where it is not in power, it is using governors for this purpose. The LDF government in Kerala, along with Tamil Nadu, Punjab and West Bengal has resisted such interference of governors in running and controlling state universities. They are trampling upon the rights of the states as enshrined in the Constitution, where education is in the concurrent list. The draft regulations are intended to give legal validity to the unconstitutional acts of the governors.
Governors are being brazenly used for partisan purposes. When the states are governed by opposition parties, governors act as impediments to the smooth functioning of such governments, as they are mostly the agents of the ruling party at the centre. In such a situation, when the governors are assigned statutory positions like chancellors of universities, they use these positions to impose the agenda of the ruling party.
It is relevant here to note what the two Commissions appointed to look at centre-state relations have commented on the role of governors as chancellors. The Sarkaria Commission, which submitted its report in 1988, stated that ‘there is an obvious advantage in the governor consulting the chief minister or other ministers concerned’. And specifically dealing with the question of their role as chancellors, it had recommended that the ‘governor may be well advised to consult the minister’ on such important matters. Both these recommendations are not followed.
The second such commission, Punchhi Commission, submitted its report in 2010, two decades after the Sarkaria Report. It went further than its predecessor in its recommendations and stated: “Making the Governor the Chancellor of the Universities and thereby conferring powers on him which may have had some relevance historically has ceased to be so with change of times and circumstances. The Council of Ministers will naturally be interested in regulating University education and there is no need to perpetuate a situation where there would be a clash of functions and powers. The Commission is also of the view that Governor should not be assigned functions casually under any Statute. His role should be confined to the Constitutional provisions only”.
No wonder such recommendations are anathema to the BJP government. The BJP is even theoretically against the concept of federalism and is for centralisation. So it is not at all interested in implementing the recommendations of centre-state commissions or curtail the powers of the governor.
The most draconian part in the draft is the punitive action prescribed if the states or any entity fail to implement these regulations. According to the draft such institutions will be debarred from participating in UGC schemes, debarred from offering degree programmes and removed from the list of the higher education institutions maintained under the UGC Act. In short, these regulations are a coercive measure prescribed by the UGC, threatening all the universities to fall in line and kowtow to its dictates. This in itself is going against the mandate of the UGC, which is primarily constituted as a body to disburse grants to various universities and not to control them.
There are other important recommendations made in the draft, which too are detrimental to the health of the higher education system. Through these regulations the UGC intends to legalise the appointment of non-academic persons as vice chancellors. We had instances of IPS and IAS officers being appointed as VCs earlier. Now, these regulations allow even persons connected with industry to be appointed as VCs. This is an assault on the academic character of the universities and an attempt to convert them as appendages to industry, particularly those in the private sector. Moreover, this is giving a free-hand to all those private universities established in our country to not bother with the appointment of academics as VCs. Such a move would further compromise the academic quality of private universities.
Teaching faculty in various universities have also voiced their opposition to these regulations as it compromises the quality of recruitment. Apart from the dilution of academic rigour and quality of the universities, they are also critical of the increased work burden and ad hoc appointments.
The UGC has placed this draft before the public for their suggestions, which is open for 30 days. All who are concerned with our education system and the future of our country should register their opposition to these regulations. The student and teaching communities along with all democratic forces must unitedly work to get these regulations withdrawn.
(January 8, 2025)
