UGC to limit public varsity teachers’ part-time engagement  

The University Grant Commission (UGC), the apex body to monitor the country’s higher education, has stressed formulating guidelines over how much time the public university teachers should be allowed to spend in their part-time engagement with private educational institutions.

The UGC in its annual report 2013 says some public university teachers engaged in part-time teaching in one or more private universities spend much more time there than in their own universities, reports UNB.

ugcThere is no specific guideline on how much time a public university teacher can spend as a part-time teacher in any other university or educational institution.

“So, an initiative for formulating and implementing some specific guidelines on the teachers’ duty and overall conduct is needed,” the report says.

UGC chairman Prof Dr AK Azad Chowdhury said his Commission will formulate the guidelines to specify how much time a teacher should spend in his own university and in his part-time engagement in other educational institutions, especially private universities.

“The guidelines must be formulated in consultation with the authorities of the public universities, or else, both the public and the private universities would be affected,” he told UNB.

The UGC chairman said the guidelines will also specify that how much time a teacher should spend in the classroom, interaction with students and administrative works of his or her own university. “We’ve already started the process of formulating the guidelines,” he added.

In the report, the Commission said the quality of public university teachers is very satisfactory and most of them are sincere and play a significant role in national development.

But there is an allegation against a section of the public university teachers that they are reluctant about their duties in their own universities. Many teachers remain absent in their classes without issuing any prior notice to the students. Even they hardly spend the required time in practical classes, the report says.

Although all the public universities have their own rules over how many hours a teacher should spend in the class a week, the rules are not implemented properly, according to the report.

The UGC thinks there should also be a specific rule that how much time a teacher should pass in the workplace for research, administrative works, interaction with students and other activities other than taking 30-32 classes a year.

Due to the absence of a specific rule regarding teachers’ engagement in research, administrative works and interaction with students outside the classroom, many teachers remain absent in the workplace most of the time. And the classrooms and teachers’ office rooms of many universities are allegedly remain under lock and key in the afternoon, the report added.

Allegations are also there that many teachers make unusual delay in evaluating answer sheets leading to irregular publication of examination results.

Former UGC chairman Prof Nazrul Islam said the UGC can suggest formulation of such guidelines, but it has no authority to force public universities to implement the guidelines as the universities are autonomous organisations.

He, however, stressed the need for having such guideline. “The public universities should formulate such guidelines on their own.”

Prof Nazrul Islam noted that there are some sorts of guidelines in the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet).

According to the UGC report, 34 out of the country’s 37 public universities are running their academic activities with more than 20 lakh students in 2013, while 68 private universities out of 80 were running academic activities with 3.29 lakh students.


Share:

Leave a Reply

Verified by MonsterInsights