UGC draft norms remove NET as must for assistant prof post

Clearing National Eligibility Test (NET) will no longer be a mandatory qualification for appointment as an assistant professor, according to the University Grants Commission (UGC) draft guidelines released by Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday for faculty recruitment and promotions in higher education institutions.

- Sanjay Maurya

NEW DELHI:

The draft norms focus on removing "rigidity" from the existing eligibility criteria for faculty appointments and providing opportunities for universities to hire academic staff from diverse, multidisciplinary backgrounds in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

"These draft reforms and guidelines will infuse innovation, inclusivity, flexibility, and dynamism in every aspect of higher education, empower teachers and academic staff, strengthen academic standards and pave the way for achieving educational excellence," Pradhan said, during the release of draft regulations at UGC headquarters in Delhi.

The new norms will replace the existing 2018 regulations on minimum qualifications for faculty appointments in universities to the pre-NEP 2020 era. In the new regulations, we have removed rigidity from existing regulators and are providing flexibility to the higher education institutions to select the best talents and provide them with a supportive ecosystem to grow in multiple ways," UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar told HT.