Acting on complaints from teachers, the human resource development ministry on Thursday directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to quash its recently revised regulations mandating higher working hours for academicians.
"The ministry has reviewed the recent amendment to the UGC (Minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academic staff in universities and colleges and measures for the maintenance of standards in higher education) Regulations, 2010.
"Consequent on the review, the ministry has issued a direction to the UGC to undertake amendments in the Regulations. There will be no increase in the workload of teachers, after the amendments, in comparison with the workload prescribed earlier," said a HRD ministry statement.
It said that the direct teaching-learning hours to be devoted by assistant professors (16 hours) and associate professors/professors (14 hours) too will remain unchanged.
The guidelines issued by the UGC earlier this month had increased teaching hours by two hours for each category. Under the new guidelines, an assistant professor was required to teach 18 hours a week instead of 16 hours, while an associate professor was required to put in 16 hours instead of 14.
"Teachers are encouraged to work with students, beyond the structure of classroom teaching. Indicatively, this could entail mentoring, guiding and counselling students.
"Teachers were required to allocate six additional hours per week, beyond the direct teaching-learning hours, on research. These hours can now be also utilised for tutorials/remedial classes/seminars/administrative responsibilities/innovation and updating of course contents," it added.
--IANS
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