Madras University’s fiat to Academic Council members irks teachers – The Hindu

The University of Madras has stipulated that to contest for Syndicate, Senate and Standing Committee of the University of Madras, Academic Council members must provide their salary details.

The university notified elections for the statutory bodies on August 25 and the last date to file nomination is September 7. The elections are due on September 24 for four Syndicate, two Standing committee vacancies and 10 Senate vacancies. The Syndicate vacancies are exclusively for college teachers.

Syndicate members will hold the post for three years and may contest twice. The Syndicate has 27 members, including representatives from the State government and the university faculty. They approve the decisions taken by the Senate and the Academic Council. The University of Madras, has, under its purview, over 140 colleges, many of them self-financing, spread across Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts. All colleges are represented in the Academic Council, and they in turn, elect Senate and Syndicate members.

On August 29, the university Registrar wrote to the Academic Council stating that candidates should submit a request letter, along with “proof of pay details as per the university statute, duly certified by the principal or secretary of the college concerned” to obtain the nomination form.

The next day, two Syndicate members, B. Venugopal and M. Srinivasan, urged the Registrar to withdraw the communication. “Since the notification had been issued, it is assumed that the elector and the candidates are eligible to vote or contest. Besides, the Principal of a college is selected by a duly constituted selection committee and the Syndicate approves the qualification. Thus, he automatically becomes a member of the Academic Council,” the members said. “It is the established procedure in the light of statutory provisions of the Madras University Act, 1923,” they added.

Vice-Chancellor S. Gowri said the statutes, the University Grants Commission regulations and the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges Act specify that regular teachers should be paid the stipulated salary and the inspection process should look into it.

“If pay scales are not provided and consolidated salary is given (then), they are guest faculty or temporary faculty. The current inspection report for affiliation for colleges seeks details of whether the salary is as per norms. The format of the various such inspection reports were approved by the Syndicate as well as Senate. If any college has not given details of salary and yet the college management wants its teachers to be approved as Senate/Academic Council/Syndicate member (as per the university statutes), the salary details are required,” he said.

For several years now, teachers’ unions of private colleges have been complaining about pay not being on a par with UGC mandated qualifications. The V-C had mentioned it in one of his speeches in the Senate as well.

“Many teachers have complained that their salary is as low as ₹12,000 or ₹15,000 and the university should help as it approves the qualification. Hence, we have asked for details for the benefit of teachers in such colleges. It is the responsibility of the management but not that of a teacher,” he said.

A former general secretary of the Association of University Teachers said: “For an associate professor, the UGC pay scale is nearly ₹2 lakh. All college principals are associated professors but no self-financing college pays the stipulated salary. However, being an Academic Council member, it is the candidate’s basic right to contest election.” The university had not approved the membership of around 40 persons thus denying the right to contest in the upcoming election, he added.

Mr. Gowri said so far no teacher had complained against the call for salary details.