15 January 2025 | The Telegraph

Higher education in India is going through a sea change, not necessarily into something rich but certainly into something strange. The University Grants Commission draft regulations, 2025 aim to amend the minimum qualifications for the post of assistant professor required by the 2018 UGC regulations. According to the latter, a candidate should have completed a Master’s degree in the relevant to, or concerned or allied subject with the one to be taught, and would have had to have passed the National Eligibility Test or the State Eligibility Test or received a PhD degree to be considered for the post. The 2025 draft regulations eliminate the need to study for an undergraduate and post-graduate degree in the relevant subject. All the candidate must do is pass the NET or achieve a PhD degree in that subject irrespective of Bachelor’s or Master’s training. That is, an assistant professor in chemistry may have studied history as a BA and MA student. Since it would be difficult to acquire a doctorate degree in a completely different discipline from the one studied earlier in depth, it can be assumed that passing the NET by answering multiple-choice questions would be adequate qualification for an assistant professor. This will certainly help the coaching industry to burgeon further. Other qualifications, publications and experience, valued in the 2018 regulations, will not matter…

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