Years of experience but 15 IITE faculty can't be PhD guides

Ambiguity over university's Act denies 15 experienced teachers PhD supervision, stalling promotions to become a professor

- | Niyati.Rana @ahmedabadmirror.in

Imagine you're an academic with more than 20 years of experience, you've worked with a university for over a decade, yet you can't supervise a single PhD student.

It sounds like a nightmare for academics. But it’s the reality for 15 faculty members teaching master’s degree courses in science and arts at Indian Institute of Teacher Education (IITE).

The reason? What these teachers call perceived ambiguity over the varsity's act, whether it allows PhDs in science and arts subjects given its core mandate as a university of education. Some say it's simply unwillingness to act. IITE has 34 full-time faculty members. Of these, 15 teach courses in science and arts whilst the remaining 19 teach education.