Vadodara’s MSU faculty member flags ‘violation’ in counting fixed-pay service

Vadodara: A faculty member at Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) has written to the University Grants Commission (UGC), alleging that the Gujarat govt violated UGC regulations by counting service rendered under the fixed-pay Adhyapak Sahayak scheme as valid teaching experience for higher academic posts.In his representation to the UGC chairman, Prof Satish Pathak of MSU's Department of Education claimed that the state education department allowed experience gained as a fixed-pay assistant professor to be treated as eligible experience for direct recruitment to the posts of associate professor and professor in state universities. Pathak stated that the Adhyapak Sahayak scheme was introduced through a govt resolution in Aug 2005 to appoint assistant professors at grant-in-aid colleges on a fixed salary of Rs 7,500 per month for five years. He argued that the scheme functioned outside UGC pay scales, recruitment norms and service conditions, and therefore fell outside the regulatory framework governing higher education appointments. The representation noted that although the state later aligned qualification requirements for such appointments with UGC and NCTE norms through resolutions issued between 2006 and 2018, adopting similar qualifications did not amount to full compliance when the appointment structure and service conditions remained different. Pathak urged the UGC to intervene, clarify that service under the fixed-pay scheme cannot be counted as valid experience under UGC norms, and direct Gujarat's universities to adhere strictly to national recruitment regulations.