UGC draft norms take away NET as obligatory for assistant professor put up

The draft norms concentrate on eradicating “rigidity” from the present eligibility standards for college appointments and offering alternatives for universities to rent educational workers from numerous, multidisciplinary backgrounds according to the Nationwide Schooling Coverage (NEP) 2020.

“These draft reforms and pointers will infuse innovation, inclusivity, flexibility, and dynamism in each facet of upper schooling, empower lecturers and educational workers, strengthen educational requirements and pave the way in which for reaching academic excellence,” Pradhan stated, in the course of the launch of draft laws at UGC headquarters in Delhi.

Academicians have known as the draft laws “progressive” steps in direction of strengthening greater schooling.

The brand new norms will exchange the present 2018 laws on minimal {qualifications} for college appointments in universities and faculties. The 2018 laws made it obligatory for the candidate looking for the position of assistant professor degree — entry-level positions — to have cleared the UGC’s Nationwide Eligibility Check (UGC-NET) after postgraduation (PG). It is not going to be obligatory beneath the brand new UGC draft norms.

“The 2018 laws belong to the pre-NEP 2020 period. Within the new laws, we’ve got eliminated rigidity from current regulators and are offering flexibility to the upper schooling establishments to pick out the very best skills and supply them with a supportive ecosystem to develop in a number of methods,” UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar instructed HT.

“The NEP 2020 says that we should introduce multidisciplinary schooling, due to this fact our lecturers additionally needed to come from multidisciplinary backgrounds. No matter your undergraduate (UG) or postgraduate (PG) levels and their respective disciplines, pursuing a PhD in a very totally different area will nonetheless qualify you for college positions,” Kumar added.

In a gathering held on December 23, 2024, UGC authorised the “Draft UGC (Minimal {Qualifications} for Appointment of Lecturers and Educational Employees in Universities and Schools and Measures for the Upkeep of Requirements in Greater Schooling) Laws, 2025”. Pradhan launched the draft pointers which are actually obtainable on the UGC web site for suggestions and strategies. These laws specify the minimal {qualifications}, expertise, and accomplishments for appointment and promotion of colleges and different educational workers, together with vice-chancellors, in greater schooling establishments.

The brand new draft norms state that candidates with four-year undergraduate (UG) or postgraduate (PG) levels in disciplines totally different from their PhD area will nonetheless be eligible for appointment as assistant professors within the topic of their PhD. Moreover, candidates who qualify for the Nationwide Eligibility Check (NET) or State Eligibility Check (SET) in a topic totally different from their four-year UG diploma can be eligible for assistant professor positions within the self-discipline or topic wherein they cleared NET or SET.

“This is a vital flexibility to take away inflexible topic boundaries and permit college candidates to transition throughout disciplines, making a extra multidisciplinary ecosystem inside college campuses as envisaged in NEP 2020,” Kumar stated.

Candidates should have a four-year UG diploma with no less than 75% marks or a PG diploma with no less than 55% marks and a PhD Diploma for the appointment of assistant professor, in response to new draft laws.

As per the 2018 laws, candidates looking for appointment as college members are judged primarily based on the Educational Efficiency Indicator (API) system which closely depends on quantitative metrics resembling journal or convention publication counts. The 2025 laws discontinue the API-based shortlisting and undertake a extra qualitative method, Kumar stated.

“To this point, we’ve got been emphasising publication in journals and presentation of papers at conferences. Now, college members can try this whereas contributing to the colleges and faculties by writing textbooks, growing applied sciences, making use of for patents, making use of for patents, establishing start-up firms, researching on Indian Data System (IKS), and selling Indian languages within the studying course of in greater schooling establishments. The contributions of colleges in these areas can be assessed by choice committees of their promotions,” Kumar stated.

The PhD diploma can be a compulsory qualification for promotion to affiliate professor and professor in universities and faculties. Candidates should have made no less than notable contributions in no less than 4 areas out of the 9 — progressive educating contribution; analysis or educating lab improvement; consultancy or sponsored analysis funding as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator; educating contributions in Indian languages; teaching-learning and analysis in IKS; scholar internship or venture supervision; digital content material creation for enormous open on-line course (MOOCs); neighborhood engagement and repair; and start-up with funding by way of authorities, angel or enterprise funds to assist it.

Whereas for appointment as affiliate professor, candidates should have a minimal of eight years educating as an assistant professor, the appointment for professor requires no less than 10 years of educating as assistant professor or affiliate professor.

With an goal to allow expert practitioners to contribute to academia whereas preserving cultural heritage and selling bodily schooling, the most recent UGC draft laws have launched specialised recruitment pathways to draw high expertise in fields like yoga, music, performing arts, and sports activities, recognising skilled achievements and nationwide or worldwide accolades.

A distinguished individual possessing excessive educational {qualifications} with a minimal of ten years of expertise as a professor in an HEI can be eligible to be appointed as vice-chancellor. The draft laws have additionally modified the choice course of for vice-chancellors by increasing eligibility standards to incorporate professionals from academia, analysis establishments, public coverage, public administration, and business.

Prof Dhananjay Joshi, vice-chancellor, of Delhi Lecturers College known as the brand new draft laws a “progressive step” in direction of greater schooling. “Lecturers must be dynamic according to the multidisciplinary nature of schooling as advocated in NEP 2020. The laws present the rules for a similar,” he stated.