COIMBATORE: Professors from various departments of Periyar University alleged that Vice Chancellor R Jagannathan refused to allocate the Additional Chief Superintendent’s (ACS) work to them.
With the odd semester exams commencing next month, the professors demanded that the new higher education secretary K Gopal should intervene.
A professor from one of the departments who did not wish to be named, told TNIE, “As per the norms, the varsity should allocate ACS duties to the department staff to monitor the semester exams. ACS also checks for malpractices during the exams. This practice is followed in all universities except Periyar.
He also alleged that instead of allocating this duty to the teaching staff from the university, the VC is allocating this duty to professors of other private colleges with the intention that the varsity staff do not supervise the exams. Hence, the higher education department should ensure that the ACS work is assigned to a professor from the varsity.
V Vaithianathan, Periyar University Teachers Association (PUTA) president told TNIE that it is not just this. Still, the VC does not allow them to evaluate the student’s answer scripts as well.
He added, “The duty of a professor is imparting, researching, and answer script evaluation. After the VC was appointed, he did not allow us to evaluate the answer scripts of the affiliated private colleges. Rather, he allows only the professors of private colleges to evaluate the answer scripts.
As a result, team marks to our Carrier Advance Scheme (CAS) will not be added and it would affect our performances. Besides, it would also create trouble during promotion.”
TNIE tried contacting the Higher Education Secretary K Gopal and university VC R Jagannathan for comments, but were not available.