“University teachers must clear NET”

[sajiv]

"University teachers must clear NET"

TIRUCHI: Citing UGC guidelines, Bharathidasan University has made it mandatory for affiliated colleges to make new appointments with only candidates qualified in National Eligibility Test / State Level Eligibility Test, and those who had completed Ph.D before 1993.

As for faculties with M.Phil qualification serving in the colleges for long, they must be given one year time to clear the eligibility test for lectureship. M.Phil is not a qualification for teaching in colleges, Vice-Chancellor M. Ponnavaikko emphasised at a meeting of principals on Tuesday.

For offering M.Phil programme, a college department must have at least two qualified M.Phil research supervisors in the subject of whom at least one has to be a Ph.D. degree holder.

In departments of computer science, biotechnology, microbiology, library science and similar new subjects, there can be two M.Phil research supervisors in the discipline subject to the condition that the department concerned fulfils the requirement of having at least one Ph.D. holder on or before December 2012.

The guide should possess a Ph.D. degree with two years of teaching experience and should have published at least one paper in a reputed national / international journal. Teachers with M.Phil and NET/SLET qualification, three years of PG teaching experience, and with publication of at least two papers in reputed journals were also eligible to guide M.Phil students. Colleges must complete admissions to M.Phil by August 12 and the classes will begin on September 1, he said, assuring to publish the PG results before this week-end. Reiterating that course work was compulsory for Ph.D. programme, the Vice-Chancellor said that otherwise the qualification will not be recognised for lecturer appointments.

The doctoral committee will determine the areas in which the candidate requires course work for timely completion of the doctorate degree. The Departmental Research Committee consisting of the department head and senior faculties has the responsibility of processing applications and ensuring that the research topic is new. They must select the candidate based on entrance and oral tests (teachers in service are exempted from the test). The applications must then be forwarded the same to the Registrar for university approval. The university has lifted the restriction on the maximum number of Ph.D candidates that a department can admit at a time. A research supervisor can guide a maximum of eight Ph.D candidates. In the place of one Ph.D candidate, a supervisor can guide three M.Phil candidates.

The Vice-Chancellor appealed to the Principals to extend their fullest cooperation for making the concept of 'cluster colleges' a success. He was hopeful that as in the case of Choice-Based Credit System, the university can be first in the country to materialise the 'cluster colleges' concept, advising the coordinators nominated for the purpose to convene separate meetings of identified clusters.