Varsity to pay salary arrears of 116 staff members in affiliated colleges

Varsity to pay salary arrears of 116 staff members in affiliated colleges

Vice-Chancellor lauds the varsity’s improvement in NIRF rankings, says it was because of better quality of doctoral projects and cooperation among affiliated colleges; Senate members express concern over delay in issue of mark sheets

The Hindu Bureau

TIRUCHI

Bharathidasan University (BDU) will process salary payments of 116 staff working in 10 affiliated arts and science colleges whose salaries are pending from November 2023 to June 2024. The decision was announced in reply to a question at the annual Senate meeting of university on Saturday.

Addressing the Senate, Vice-Chancellor M. Selvam said the university’s improved performance on the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) list could be attributed to tight quality control and cooperation among the affiliated colleges.

“We have approved over 300 applications for doctoral studies this academic year, and I believe the better quality of our doctoral projects are an important factor in our higher NIRF ranks,” said Mr. Selvam.

The meeting got off to a rocky start in the morning when K. Suriyan, professor, and head, Department of Sociology, sat on the floor to protest at being denied permission to speak about matters related to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Cell in the university. He urged the Senate to facilitate the progress of dalit students in higher education.

Criticism over the delay in implementing past resolutions dominated the opening half of the meeting, with participating academics highlighting problems related to Ph. D studies.

Protest for time

V. Pari, assistant professor, Department of Tamil, Raja Serfoji Government College, Thanjavur, contended that the Senate had not clarified its stand on the condition of research article publication not being mandatory in journals approved by University Grants Commission - Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics .

“Arbitrary use of UGC-CARE list recommendations and high penalty fees for those who apply for extensions are holding up degrees for a large number of scholars,” said Mr. Pari.

Participants expressed concern over the non-issuance of mark sheets of three semesters in the current academic year.

Senate members replied that the release of B. Com. mark sheets had been completed recently, and B. Sc. scores would follow in the coming weeks.