THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The appointment of faculty members and higher officials of the recently established Digital University Kerala has courted controversy as it allegedly goes against the provisions of the UGC Regulations, 2018. Save University Campaign Committee, a collective of education activists, has petitioned the Governor (Chancellor) seeking his intervention in the matter.
The appointment of teachers and higher officials of the university are governed by the Digital University Act. However, the appointments made to the posts of professors, deans, registrar and controller of examinations seem to have been made in an arbitrary manner without open notifications and without following UGC norms on qualification, the petition pointed out.
The Digital University Act does not indicate that the staff of IIITM-K, the autonomous institution that was upgraded into the university, can be absorbed into the varsity. The petition said many backdoor appointments in IIITM-K have been made permanent by simply re-designating them as academic staff of the university.
As per University Act, IIITM-K has been designated as the sponsoring agency of the university. It is pointed out that IIITM-K invited applications for teaching faculty in the university for which the agency has no authority.
“Appointing a large number of academic and non-academic staff in a university through a ‘sponsoring agency’ is part of the ongoing conspiracy of backdoor appointments,” the Save University Campaign Committee pointed out. The petition also said some of the teachers currently appointed as senior faculty in the university are not suitably qualified for the posts they are holding.
VARSITY DENIES CHARGE
The university has denied the charges of illegal appointment. Registrar P Suresh Babu said the faculty and other staff of IIITM-K have only been given additional charge in the newly set up Digital University. He said the employees were not being given any remuneration from the university and that their salary was being paid by IIITM-K.