Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 20: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said the ‘Draft UGC regulations 2025’ was part of the efforts to place higher education “under the control of those promoting religious and communal ideologies” and therefore, “it cannot be allowed to pass”.
After inaugurating a National Convention on these regulations here, chief minister said the guidelines were aimed at not only diminishing the role of state governments in higher education but also completely sidelining them.
He said that under the draft regulations, the states have no role in the appointment of vice chancellors (VCs) and assistant professors in state-established universities and termed them as “undemocratic and excessive”.
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Vijayan said that this was despite the fact the the state governments fund nearly 80 per cent of the expenses for running varsities and other higher educational institutions.
He further said that there was every possibility of the present political dispensation at the centre substituting people with academic excellence by those of political choice,” as has happened in many iconic institutions, ranging from the Pune Film Institute to the ICHR”.
“The approach of appointing Vice-Chancellors from outside academia, even from the private sector, needs to be seen as an attempt to commercialise higher education,” he asserted.
At the event, attended by ministers from the neighbouring states of Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Vijayan also accused the Centre of “spending money on establishing myths as facts and beliefs as science”.
“Even at the helm of research institutes we have those peddling falsehoods and superstitions as facts and scientific truths. Yet, the Draft Regulations do not seem to worry about these dangerous trends that are creeping into our higher education sector, which will undoubtedly send us backwards,” he said.
Referring to the concerns he has regarding the regulations, CM said that powers for appointing VCs have been given to Chancellors, who are the Governors appointed by the Centre.
“If the Chancellor can appoint anyone from a panel, undoubtedly the appointment will be at the behest of the political powers that have appointed the Governor, as in almost all state universities, Governors are Chancellors. Such politically motivated interventions can seriously impinge upon the standards of higher education in the country,” he said.
Vijayan claimed that “gubernatorial excesses” were experienced by many opposition-ruled states including Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala, in the country.
The CM also highlighted his government’s experience with Arif Mohammed Khan as a governor and how he had declined assent to various bills related to the administration of universities in the state, forcing the state government to approach the Supreme Court.
Vijayan said that the draft regulations also carried “new and arbitrary criteria” for promotions of academic staff as it proposes to do away with the Academic Performance Indicator (API) system of evaluation. He said that the regulations were “not an isolated incident in terms of the Union government infringing upon the states’ rights”.
“Over the years, we have seen the Union government repeatedly enact laws that encroach upon the states’ powers and duties in several sectors, even on law and order, which is absolutely in the States List in the Constitution,” Vijayan said.
The CM also raised the issue of the Centre allegedly eating into the states’ financial resources as “share of Union allocation for their own schemes was coming down year-after-year, with the state governments having to chip in more-and-more”. He also alleged that the Union government will go to any extent to usurp the rights of the states.
Similar views were expressed by Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu, who presided over the event, Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan, Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Karnataka Higher Education Minister M C Sudhakar.
Bindu said the draft regulations were not only an incursion into the constitutional provisions, but would lead to “diluting” academic quality in the state universities. She said that the regulations carried “potential dangers” to the freedom and autonomy of the states in higher education.
Satheesan said the draft regulations were aimed at arm-twisting states and indicated how “fascism acts in an unprecedented manner”. Vikramarka said in his speech that the draft regulations “leave the states as mere spectators in their own universities”.
“It is akin to saying you pay the bill, but you cannot order the food,” he said.
The Kerala government has expressed opposition to the draft regulations right from the start with the state assembly unanimously passing a resolution urging the Union government to withdraw the regulations.
The government also appointed a 5 member committee to formulate views on the new regulations and respond to the UGC.
The Draft UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment & Promotion of Teachers and Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2025 were released in the first week of January.
According to the Union Education Ministry, the draft guidelines aim to provide universities with greater flexibility in appointing and promoting teachers and academic staff. (PTI)
