KOCHI: Dealing a severe blow to the research activities in higher educational institutions in the state, the UGC has issued a circular insisting that only regular teachers under the same universities are authorised to supervise research within the same university.
The circular sent by UGC secretary Dr Jaspal S. Sandhu to the vice-chancellors of universities across the country says that any violation of the rule will be viewed seriously by the UGC.
Many students in the state have been doing research under guides who are either retired hands or serving in other universities.
The UGC had not insisted on such a regulation in an order issued in 2009 in this regard.
“More than 30 percent of the guides in social sciences in Kerala University and 50 percent of those in MG University are either retired hands or those from outside the jurisdiction of the university. The Calicut, Kannur and Sanskrit universities too have many retired hands or those from outside the university,” said Dr Gabriel Simon, who is working with the commerce department of Kerala University and is a guide in MG University.
“This new circular that reinforces the 2009 UGC regulation in this regard also affects government college teachers in the state who are research guides. They are prone to frequent transfers to different varsities in the state and will not be able to function as guides and the research scholars under them will be in trouble. Many research centres having only two guides will be forced to close down if one guide is from another university, which is the case in many centres under the MG University,” said Dr Gabriel.
The UGC for the past six years had not cared to implement its regulation. Moreover, research will be supervised mostly by inexperienced hands henceforth.
