Govt proposes new norms for recruitment of varsity professors

The Centre has proposed to bring in a new assessment criteria for recruitment and promotion of university  professors/lecturers to improve the quality of higher education.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has also proposed to scrap the current system of appraisal and promotion of faculty members based on academic performance indicator (API) scores.

The ministry's proposal will be taken up for a decision during the two-day meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education, beginning Monday.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar will preside over the meeting.

"Proposal to introduce a new assessment criteria for recruitment and promotion in lieu of the API scores is one of the key agenda of the meeting. The proposal has been made to improve the quality of higher education in the country," official sources said.

The system of faculty members' appraisal on the basis of API scores has been a contentious topic ever since the University Grants Commission (UGC) introduced it in 2010.

Last year, the UGC had to restore the direct teaching hours workload of university faculty members after various teachers' bodies, including the Delhi University Teachers Association, came together to protest against the commission's revised recruitment and promotion rules.

The revised rules enhanced the per week classroom teaching time by two hours lining it with the API.