UGC to allow experts & professionals to teach in central universities even without Ph.D degree

March 14: In a major decision, the University Grants Commission (UGC) is planning to amend its regulations to do away with the mandatory Ph.D. requirement to teach in central universities, However, this opportunity is not for all and sundry without a Ph.D degree. The government is planning to implement this decision under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 implementation in order to have more industry experts and professionals  as teachers in universities.

“There are many experts who want to teach. There could be someone who has implemented large projects and has a lot of on-the-ground experience, or there could be a great dancer or a musician. But we can’t appoint them going by the present rules,” UGC Chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said. Special positions like ‘professor of practice’ and ‘associate professor of practice’ are being created to accommodate such industry experts in central universities. The UGC has not confirmed whether these positions will be temporary or permanent, but it is likely that they will be kept flexible based on the needs of the institute and the expert (s).

The proposal was discussed during a meeting of Kumar with the vice-chancellors of central universities on Thursday (March 10). A committee will be set up to finalize the modalities of implementing it, Kumar said on March 11. “Applicants who sign up will have to create their profiles with details like their academic records. It will essentially be their CV. Once they decide to apply for a certain advertised position, they will just have to indicate that and the application form will get automatically transferred to the prospective employer,” UGC Chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said.

Earlier, the Central government had amended the UGC regulations that made PhD the minimum eligibility criteria for hiring assistant professors. The regulations were to come to effect from 2021, but got deferred due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was later extended till July 2023.