A section of college teachers in Kerala are worried over the objections raised against the demand to include post-doctoral fellowship period in their service records.
An assistant professor in an aided college in Malappuram district, who did not wish to be quoted, told The Hindu on Sunday that he had been trying for a post-doctoral research opportunity in the U.S. According to clause 8.2 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations, 2018, when a teacher is awarded a scholarship or stipend for pursing further studies leading to PhD/post-doctoral qualification or for undertaking research project in a higher education institution abroad, the amount of the scholarship/fellowship shall not be linked to the recipient’s pay/salary paid to him/her by his /her parent institution. It also says that the awardee shall be paid salary for the entire duration of fellowship/scholarship, provided of course he/she does not take up any other remunerative jobs like teaching, in the host country.
He said that, however, the government was not keen on extending this benefit to the college teachers in the State. “We have been told to go on leave without salary. The duration of the fellowship is not going to be counted in our service record too,” he pointed out.
It is learnt that though the Higher Education department is in favour of implementing the UGC regulations, the Finance department is objecting to it citing the prevailing financial crisis in the State. “Though some of us told them that we are ready to forego our salary, the provision on service records should be retained. Even that is not acceptable to the officials as they are saying that adding up those years will have an impact on calculating our pension amount. It is to be noted that the government is permitting college teachers to go on leave for five years with salary to pursue PhD,” he added.
In a letter to Minister for Higher Education R. Bindu, Abida Farooqui, senate member of the University of Calicut, said that many teachers have had to forsake their service to pursue research work. Rejecting the demand to include the post-doctoral fellowship period in the service records would discourage those with genuine research interests. A woman teacher in another college in Malappuram has already gone on leave without salary to pursue a prestigious post-doc fellowship offered by the European Commission after her requests with the department failed to yield results.
