Ph.D. necessary for university-level recruitment from 2021: Javadekar
New Delhi, June 13: From 2021 onwards, only those with a Ph.D degree will be eligible to be recruited as teachers in central universities, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar announced on Wednesday.
The step was one of the many announced during a press meet.
As of now, those who have a Master’s degree and have passed the National Eligibility Test (NET) qualify to apply for the post of Assistant Professor in these universities. Those who have a Ph.D. are exempt from NET and are eligible to directly become Assistant Professor.
The decision, which will come into effect from July 2021, will however not be applicable to college teachers who will continue to become eligible for Assistant Professorship after clearing NET.
"From 2021 onwards, only Ph.Ds will be recruited in colleges," Javadekar told media here.
"There was a lacuna earlier in the recruitment rules, that Indians who have done Ph.D. from abroad were not considered eligible, but now those Indians who have done Ph.D. from top 500 institutes globally will also be eligible" he said announcing another change.
According to another decision, the ministry has done away with the Academic Point Indicator (API) system considered during the promotion of teachers at the college level. One of the requirements of the API system was that the teacher must conduct research in their field, on the basis of which their performance was rated for promotion.
"API based on PBAS (Performance Based Appraisal System) has been removed. There will not be compulsory research for the college teachers. They can do research, but they will not be forced to do it. It will not be mandatory. We want them to focus them on teaching," Javadekar said, adding that the move was taken to improve the standard of teaching at the undergraduate level.
The promotion now on will done on a different grading system which will involve components to rate teaching and student-involvement factors.
As per the new rating system, the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) by the faculty members will now be considered for the promotion.
"MOOCs are becoming increasingly popular. There are 1032 of them now on our SWAYAM platform. ... If teachers have MOOCs lecture, they will be given weightage in promotion," Javadekar said.
The decision again is not applicable to the university teachers for whom research will remain compulsory for promotion as per the API based PBAS extant.
The minister also said that the newly-recruited faculty from now on will have to go through a one-month induction programme "to ease them into college environment and learn the art of pedagogy".
In a first ever such move, he also announced creating the post of Professor at the college level, which until now had only posts of Assistant Professor and Associate Professor.
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Kannur dental student death: Case registered against loan app operators, parents allege murder
Kannur (PTI): A case has been registered against unidentified loan app operators in connection with the death of a Kannur Dental College student in Anjarakandy, officials said on Monday.
However, the victim’s parents alleged that their son was murdered and held the college faculty responsible for his death.
The Kannur Cyber Police registered the case on Sunday night based on a complaint by an assistant professor of the college.
According to police, Nithin Raj R L, a first-year BDS student, had taken a loan through an online loan app.
After he defaulted on repayment, the app operators allegedly began contacting the assistant professor.
The FIR stated that the accused contacted the woman faculty member via MMS and WhatsApp, threatening her over repayment and attempting to siphon off money illegally.
Sources said that in cases of default, such loan app operators often send messages to all available contacts of the borrower.
Raj (22), a native of Uzhamalackal, Puthukulangara in Thiruvananthapuram district, was found critically injured near the medical college block after falling from a building on April 10 and later succumbed to his injuries.
The family alleged that Raj was subjected to emotional harassment on caste and complexion grounds by two faculty members, following which a case was registered against Dental Anatomy Department Head M K Ram and Associate Professor K T Sangeetha Nambiar for abetment of suicide and under provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Even though notices were issued to both accused to appear for interrogation, they are yet to respond to the police, officials said.
Police officials said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case is also examining whether Raj’s death was linked to threats from the loan app operators.
The cyber case has been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Sections 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 308(3) (extortion), along with Section 66D of the Information Technology Act (cheating by personation using computer resources).
Police said Raj’s mobile phone will be examined to gather details about the loan app, and a detailed statement will be recorded from the assistant professor who received the threatening messages and calls.
Meanwhile, the SIT has recovered chat details from Raj’s phone, which indicate that he had sought more time to repay the loan.
According to police, Raj had taken a loan of Rs 14,000, and the app operators had demanded immediate repayment of Rs 8,000.
As his family was facing financial difficulties, he had requested a few weeks’ time to settle the dues.
The SIT, led by the Station House Officer of Chakkarakkallu police station, visited Raj’s house on Monday and recorded statements of his parents and sister.
The four-member team also collected digital evidence from them.
The family also met the State Police Chief Ravada Chandrasekhar and filed a petition seeking a detailed probe into the incident.
Raj’s father Rajan said his son had taken the loan for his mother’s treatment.
“We were repaying it. But recently, the repayment defaulted. If the teacher was aggrieved by the loan app’s calls and my son had done anything wrong, they should have informed us. You can check my phone, there is no call from the college,” he said.
Rajan said he had little hope of getting justice.
“They all killed my son. What justice can I expect? I worked hard for his education. We lost everything,” he said.
He also alleged that even three days after Raj’s death, there had been no communication from the college authorities.
“He was a student of that college. Not even a word from the authorities. Students there, fearing for their future, are not speaking out. At least one student should speak out for us,” he said.
Meanwhile, protests erupted at Kannur Dental College on Monday, with final-year BDS students also joining the agitation.
The college has granted leave to students of other batches following the incident.
Students alleged that the accused faculty member, M K Ram, misbehaved with students by body-shaming and physical assault.
“We were living under severe pressure. Ram was involved in body-shaming. Verbal abuse was frequent. Apart from it, he used to hit students on the head. There were also complaints against him and disciplinary action taken earlier,” a student told reporters.
Political organisations, including KSU of the Congress, SFI and DYFI of the CPI(M), MSF of the IUML and ABVP of the BJP, carried out protest marches.
KSU and SFI activists who entered the college compound were later detained and removed by police.
Kerala SC/ST Commission Chairperson Shekaran Miniyodan visited Raj’s house and interacted with his family.
He said the Commission has registered a case and sought a report from the police.
“We will collect information along with the SIT about the incident. Apart from the preliminary investigation report, we will also examine the postmortem report,” he said.
Similarly, the Kerala Youth Commission has also registered a case and recorded statements of students of the college.
Commission Chairman M Shajar said students have raised serious allegations against M K Ram and that a detailed probe would be conducted with police support.
Earlier, the Kerala State Human Rights Commission had also registered a case and sought a report from the police.
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