NEW DELHI: The Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) has written to the UGC demanding withdrawal of non-compounded advance increments on acquiring PhD/MPhil. The Delhi University teachers have stated that this is very unfortunate and is meant to deliberately create confusion and chaos.
DTF President Rajib Ray said, “This sudden reversal and the reference to an older letter that was withdrawn by the MoE itself is bewildering, to say the least. Our objections are also to the fact that these increments were last gazetted in the UGC Regulations 2018 and cannot be overridden through a letter.
Further, this letter of 10.2.2025 is unacceptable as it takes away a benefit that has been in place for nearly four decades, based on sound academic rationale. It has led to confusion in all universities as there may be forced recoveries for implementing the UGC Regulations.”
Explaining the promised restoration of increments, the DTF members stated that in response to the teachers’ movement, the then Minister, Prakash Javadekar, promised restoration of MPhil-PhD increments and removal of certain other retrograde clauses from the 2017 Notification and from the Draft UGC Regulations 2018.
Subsequently, the restoration of the MPhil-PhD increments was announced in 2018 (Annexure1) and the UGC Gazette Regulations 2018 notified on 18 July 2018 (Annexure 2). Moreover, the UGC itself reiterated the grant of increments through a letter issued in December 2018 (Annexure 3) which is more than a year after the quoted MoE Letter.
President further added, “We bring to your notice the implications of the withdrawal of compounded advance increments on acquiring PhD/MPhil. It is misleading to suggest that the incentive structure for PhD/MPhil is inbuilt in the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) of teachers.
Teachers with PhD/MPhil degrees get the first promotion after 4/5 years of service, which is just 2/1 year less than the teacher with a Postgraduate degree. However, this concession does not compensate for the financial loss of teachers with PhD/MPhil as acquiring higher qualifications takes many more years.”
Restoration of increments
Explaining the promised restoration of increments, the DTF members stated that in response to the teachers’ movement, the then Minister, Prakash Javadekar, promised restoration of MPhil-PhD increments and removal of certain other retrograde clauses from the 2017 Notification and from the Draft UGC Regulations 2018. The DU teachers have stated that this is meant to deliberately create confusion and chaos.