UGC Must Reform the University System

Research and Recruitment are interrelated when it come to the higher education. Over the years there has been dilution in research and subversion in recruitment process all over India in the universities. Multiple meanings of research have evolved in the last few decades. There has been focus on the publication of research papers without any thrust on the quality work. Instead the culture of the paid journals has eclipsed the higher education. The original scholarship has taken the back seat. In order to score the academic points people are in a rat race to publish the research papers. That ends in creating the cartels who decide the fate of the numerous stakeholders for the recruitment in the higher education. The victims are the original scholars who suffer in this unwanted race for quantity at the cost of quality. Same is the fate of Ph.D. degrees. Multiple Ph.D. courses are offered by the private universities that charge exorbitant amount from the aspirants. Making the mockery of research. The genuine people who come from the lower middle class are marginalised from the research. This culture has created an elite. And that elite thrives as Ph.D. has become the entitlement for the people who have the disposable income to spend as yearly fees in the private universities. As the government universities have limited seats. University Grants Commission (UGC) has to act proactively to restore the credibility of research in India. It has to be kept in mind that a quality research paper produced once in a year is more than enough. The thrust on numerous research appears in a year is mockery. Moreover the focus should be to develop  articulate and knowledgeable teacher who can develop the original scholars and not those who are on the prowl to garner points for the API score. Another issue that has got integrated to this already fragile mechanism is the issue of dereservation. A few days ago the UGC was seen issuing calcifications regarding the faculty positions for the reserved categories. It stated that the positions meant for them will not be dereserved even if these remain vacant due to the non-availability of the candidates in that slot. This was actually in response to the draft guidelines regarding the implementation of reservation in the higher education. It was made public by the UGC last month for the feedback. A chapter in these draft guidelines suggests that the reserved category posts could be dereserved in the exceptional cases. It invited the public outrage. This is alarming. The reservation now has eclipsed the higher education. The outcry against the dereservation when there will be dearth of the category candidates will divide the higher education into compartments. The causality will be the scholarship and genuine stakeholders. The dereservation in favour of the open merit /general candidates should have been encouraged when there is non-availability of the reserved candidates. After all higher education is about merit, capability, scholarship and vision. There needs to be a comprehensive mechanism for the recruitments in the university system. As from time to time there has been a controversy when it comes for appointing the teachers at the university level. It has become a foregone conclusion that a candidate belonging to the general category is financially and socially secured. But the reverse is the truth. A family availing the benefits of reservations for many generations is surely empowered. As it has brought them at par with the creamy layer of the empowered sections .And as such the contemporary generation must be excluded from this benefit and made to compete in the general category. To maintain social equality. But the reality is otherwise. A general category candidate whose generations have been discriminated against is asked to compete with over empowered reserved candidates .Even though he  may be economically at the lower level of the society. Empowering the reserved category at the cost of the disempowered general category candidates is encouraging the social inequality. This in fact violates the spirit of the reservations in India. It was meant to bring all sections of society at par in terms of empowerment. But the over reservation has created a new marginalised class that is the general category. This paradox must be ended for the comprehensive social empowerment. At least this subversion must not penetrate the university system. UGC must come clear on this and take the lead in empowering all sections of the society in the university system. Besides it must address the dilution of educational standards in the universities.