Thiruvananthapuram: The University Grants Commission's (UGC) new academic performance index (API) has several anomalies, say experts. While the UGS insists that papers should have been published in national or international, peer-reviewed journals, there are no such norms for books. API system awards points for promotion and for appointment to teaching jobs. UGC has come out with a comprehensive list of journals covering all areas of study but here is no such list of publishers, S.N. Rajesh Raj, associate professor of economics, Sikkim University, told DC.
"Moreover, papers will get the same points irrespective of their expertise. Some system like points awarded in the basis of International Standard Book Number (ISBN) should be evolved to make it fairer," Dr Raj said. V. Bijukumar, associate professor, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, said there was anomalies in the list of journals, too. The same criteria were fixed for teachers of national institutions like JNU and rural institutions, he said.
"The workload of a teacher in a rural institute would be much more than that of a national institute. Moreover, it would be more difficult for a rural teacher to get a paper published in a reputed journal than a teacher in a national institute considering the sharp rural urban divide in the country." A teacher will get 30 points for a book published by an international publisher, 20 for a book published a national publisher, 15 points for an article in a refereed journal and 10 points for an article in other reputed journals.
