HYDERABAD: Telangana Council of Higher Education (TGCHE) on Monday criticised the latest draft of the UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment & Promotion of Teachers and Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2025, which was released by the Centre on January 6.
TGCHE chairman V Balakista Reddy said the draft was a dilution to the academic standards in the high education institutions as he also opposed the procedure of appointment of vice-chancellors to the universities.
As per the existing regulations, a vice-chancellor is appointed only from an academic background with a minimum experience of 10 years as a professor, but the new UGC draft proposes that professionals apart from the academics, such as industry experts or from public administration or public policy with more than 10 years of experience can also be considered for the post of the VC.
He said that going by the new draft, the state would have no role in appointing the VCs and was subjected to serious objection.
The chairman pointed out that the new draft does not specify the standards for research publications but only mentions peer reviews and that the frequent changes in norms by the UGC were leading to confusion in the higher institutions. He further informed that a committee was formed to review the draft and a report will be submitted to the government.
Respoding to a question by TNIE on increasing plagiarism, Balakista said, “ We are facing a big challenge in academics due to technological tools, as students would like to opt for easier means to work on their academic projects or curricular activities. But we would like to urge the students to go back to the textbooks and work sincerely to gain subject knowledge instead of looking for an easy workaround.”