For UGC nod, Madras univ shifts staff to dist edu centre
Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com
Chennai: 10.09.2018
The regular departments of the University of Madras have lost 12 faculty members, two contract lecturers from constituent college and another contract lecturer, to the Institute of Distance Education (IDE) last week. The university syndicate unanimously gave its nod to the transfer in order to get the recognition of University Grants Commission to run some 50 courses sought after by 28,000 students during the previous academic year. Earlier, the UGC declined recognition on the grounds that there were insufficient faculty members.
As the UGC demands that there must be at least two fulltime faculty members at associate and assistant professor level per discipline for open and distance learning courses, some members from the regular departments — commerce, computer science, English, Tamil, mathematics, criminology, economics, history and psychology have been ‘temporarily’ shifted out. Two of four faculty members from English, two of six from Tamil, two of eight from mathematics and two of five from criminology departments were transferred. History department has only two teaching staff on its roll, hence contract lecturers from constituent college were shifted.
“Having five lecturers itself was insufficient and there is a need to increase the present strength. If the regular staff are asked to handle IDE, we will struggle. We have hired guest faculty to cope with the shortage,” said criminology professor and head, M Srinivasan. The department heads were kept in the dark and informed of the transfer, before an order copy was issued to the faculty.
Students of Tamil language and literature department are perturbed. “Our semester just started, and we have lost two lecturers. Research scholars are roped in to take classes,” said a first year PG student. The onemonth deadline by UGC to “rectify the deficiency” in IDE ends on September 16.
Vice-chancellor P Duraisamy said the move was temporary. “We will start the recruitment process. It will take at least one month to complete IDE admissions. By then, we will appoint staff, and they (regular staff) will return to parent departments,” Duraisamy said. The IDE director in-charge had an interface with the UGC on Friday to get recognition.
Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com
Chennai: 10.09.2018
The regular departments of the University of Madras have lost 12 faculty members, two contract lecturers from constituent college and another contract lecturer, to the Institute of Distance Education (IDE) last week. The university syndicate unanimously gave its nod to the transfer in order to get the recognition of University Grants Commission to run some 50 courses sought after by 28,000 students during the previous academic year. Earlier, the UGC declined recognition on the grounds that there were insufficient faculty members.
As the UGC demands that there must be at least two fulltime faculty members at associate and assistant professor level per discipline for open and distance learning courses, some members from the regular departments — commerce, computer science, English, Tamil, mathematics, criminology, economics, history and psychology have been ‘temporarily’ shifted out. Two of four faculty members from English, two of six from Tamil, two of eight from mathematics and two of five from criminology departments were transferred. History department has only two teaching staff on its roll, hence contract lecturers from constituent college were shifted.
“Having five lecturers itself was insufficient and there is a need to increase the present strength. If the regular staff are asked to handle IDE, we will struggle. We have hired guest faculty to cope with the shortage,” said criminology professor and head, M Srinivasan. The department heads were kept in the dark and informed of the transfer, before an order copy was issued to the faculty.
Students of Tamil language and literature department are perturbed. “Our semester just started, and we have lost two lecturers. Research scholars are roped in to take classes,” said a first year PG student. The onemonth deadline by UGC to “rectify the deficiency” in IDE ends on September 16.
Vice-chancellor P Duraisamy said the move was temporary. “We will start the recruitment process. It will take at least one month to complete IDE admissions. By then, we will appoint staff, and they (regular staff) will return to parent departments,” Duraisamy said. The IDE director in-charge had an interface with the UGC on Friday to get recognition.
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