Bihar Governor on Saturday notified amendments in statute for the appointment of assistant professors in the state universities to relax some norms for Bihar candidates.
The notification was approved by Governor-cum-Chancellor of Universities Phagu Chouhan after the opinion of vice-chancellors and state government on the amendments, which will give candidates from Bihar a fair chance of competing.
Bihar is likely to advertise for over 5,000 vacancies of assistant professors in its seriously understaffed universities and colleges. Last year, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had also warned that “delay in filling up vacant positions of faculty members will be viewed seriously and could lead to appropriate actions by the UGC against such institutions.”
However, soon after the statute for appointed was notified by the Raj Bhawan on August 10, concerns were expressed over some of the clauses that could affect the prospects of candidates, who did their Ph.D from state universities and where the 2009 UGC regulation could not be implemented on time.
JD(U) MLC Sanjeev Singh also wrote to the chief minister and the chancellor in this regard, highlighting the issues confronting candidates from Bihar.
Sensing the problem, barely a couple of days later, chief minister Nitish Kumar announced in his Independence Day address that the concerns of the candidates from Bihar would be addressed and the Raj Bhawan would look into the matter. Within a couple of days, the draft of amendments reached the Raj Bhawan.
As per amendments, doctorates, who got registered for the Ph.D programme with Bihar universities prior to July 11, 2009, would be governed by the then existing ordinances/ bylaws/ regulations of the institutions awarding degrees and exempted from National Eligibility Test (NET), State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) or State Eligibility Test (SET),’subject to fulfilment of certain conditions.
“The conditions include award of degree through regular mode after evaluation by at least two external examiners and open viva voce. The candidates should also have two research papers, including one in peer-reviewed journal, and presented at least two papers in conferences or seminars funded by UGC or other national level research organisations. The Dean (Academic Affairs/ Faculty) of the concerned university will certify it,” says the notification.
Another change has been that 2009 Ph.D regulations of the UGC would now be effective from the date of notification in the universities concerned, as different universities notified it on different dates after the Raj Bhawan notification in 2012.
“Applicants who got registered and obtained their Ph.D degrees form the universities in Bihar during the period of July 11, 2009, till the date of UGC regulation in the universities shall also be exempted from NET/ SLET/ SET if their degrees conformed to the above mentioned five conditions,” say the amendments in the notification.
The third change is that the seven-point weightage to M.Phil has been done away with.
