Thousands of government degree college guest faculty in trouble with recent Karnataka High Court order mandating UGC norms for appointment

The Karnataka State Eligibility Test (K-SET), National Eligibility Test (NET), or Ph.D is mandatory to become a permanent and guest faculty of a degree college as per UGC norms

The process of selecting guest lecturers for the academic year of 2024-25 has become complicated in the wake of the Karnataka High Court order that only those who have the qualifications specified by the University Grants Commission (UGC) should be appointed as guest faculty for Government First Grade Colleges in the State.

The Collegiate Education Department has temporarily halted the recruitment process of guest faculty due to the court order.

The Karnataka State Eligibility Test (K-SET), National Eligibility Test (NET), or Ph.D is mandatory to become a permanent and guest faculty of a degree college as per UGC norms. But guest faculties who have been working in the government first grade colleges for the last two or three decades with just a master’s degree have run into trouble.

Applications were invited by the Collegiate Education Department on August 30 for the appointment of guest faculty against the vacant posts of lecturers in government first grade colleges for the year 2024-25. According to the rules, the candidates who were working as guest faculty in the year 2023-24 were allowed to continue in the same college if they wanted.

In addition, the remuneration for newly appointed guest faculty with UGC prescribed qualification, including Master’s degree is ₹35,000 to ₹40,000 based on seniority, and for guest faculties without UGC prescribed qualification ₹31,000 to ₹36,000 based on seniority.

Some aspirants, who have the qualification prescribed by the UGC, filed a case in the High Court against the appointment of guest lecturers who do not have the qualifications.

The High Court recently issued an order making the qualification prescribed by the UGC mandatory for the post of guest faculty in government first grade colleges.

There are 430 government grade colleges in Karnataka and a total of 10,600 guest faculty have been recruited by the Collegiate Education Department for 2023-24. They have been allowed to work till January 13, 2025.

Of these, a total of 5,890 have only a Master’s degree.

“Being a post-graduate degree holder, I have been serving as a guest faculty in a government first grade college at Chikkaballapura district for the past 15 years. 70% of the guest faculty working across the State do not have the qualification prescribed by UGC. A few years ago, the Higher Education Department had made UGC norms mandatory for the appointment of guest faculty. However, we requested the government not to apply the UGC norms to us as we were receiving very little remuneration and were teaching only eight hours a week. The government agreed to our request. However, now the order of the High Court has put a strain on our job. Apart from this, we do not know any other profession. As I am already 50 years old, the chances of getting a job elsewhere are also less,” said a guest faculty.

Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar said, “Earlier, the government had allowed the continuation of guest faculty who did not have the qualification prescribed by UGC till 2025. However, before that, the order of the High Court has come, in which more than 5,000 guest faculty will suffer. Therefore, we are thinking about other ways, including taking a legal opinion and filing an appeal in the High Court.”

Published - September 27, 2024 05:16 pm IST