Rituals of Selection: UGC’s New Draft and Politics of Faculty Recruitment in Indian Universities
Vidyasagar Sharma | 23 March 2025 | Doing Sociology
The ongoing structural and institutional changes in Indian higher education have led to the emergence of highly political academic environments, where ideological affiliations and political patronage have increasingly replaced merit and scholarship as the primary markers of academic legitimacy. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power, the central government has implemented systematic measures to restructure the secular and egalitarian landscape of higher education. The recent University Grant Commission (UGC) Draft for “Minimum Qualifications for Appointment and Promotion of Teachers and Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education Regulations, 2025” can be seen as representing the broader agenda to saffronise the faculty recruitment in Indian universities….