BANGALORE: The University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bangalore, has reportedly gone ahead with the appointment of a professor of Horticulture (a backlog post reserved for SC/ST candidates), a move that has triggered a controversy since it reportedly ignored the candidature of an Associate Professor with a foreign Ph.D. The State Social Welfare Department had directed the University to withhold the appointment, early this month.

The Associate Professor was not considered for the post because the University of London, which awarded the doctorate, did not have a grading system.

In a letter to the UAS, the Commissioner of the Social Welfare Department demanded a report within 30 days if there was any violation or deviation in the selection procedure.

Complaint

The affected Associate Professor, B.N. Sathyanarayana, had approached the Commissioner's office against his non-selection for the post. Incidentally, Mr. Sathyanarayana is also in-charge of the University's Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory, an institution that he took the lead in developing.

What came as a big shock to Mr. Sathyanarayana was that the university considered only the percentage marks obtained at the Masters Degree and Ph.D. degree for selection of the Professor post under the backlog category.

"This procedure of considering only marks in the qualifying examination for a senior-most and highest teaching post of a professor is clearly unfair, unethical and a mockery of professional ethics at the highest seat of learning, the university," he wrote to the University Chancellor, the Governor.

Hunger srtike

He did not attend the interview in protest and even went on a two-day hunger strike, a move that made the university let him present his case before its next board meeting.

Having guided seven Ph.D. and 10 M.Sc. students (currently guiding five Ph.D. and two M.Scs) since getting his doctorate in 1993, and having devoted 24 years for the university, Dr. Sathyanarayana was confident of getting the post.

He had also published 15 full-length scientific papers in international and national journals and presented over 20 papers in scientific seminars.

By contrast, the candidate selected by the university reportedly completed his Ph.D. only in 2004 and had been a postgraduate teacher only for three years. Besides, he was not even an Associate Professor, a pre-cadre service requirement for the professor's post according to the Indian Council for Agricultural Research rules.

At the University of London, where Dr. Sathyanarayana got his doctorate, a Ph.D. degree is awarded only by research accomplishment and there is no course work that would have attracted marking of grading. "Worldwide, any university would only take the contribution of a staff over the years into consideration to merit him with a post of highest appointment in the university of a professor," the Associate Professor contended.

Guideline

The university had maintained that it had gone by a Government guideline to consider only merit. But apparently, the Government had set the criteria for an entry-level cadre and not for the highest post in the university.

A government notification in April 2002 had set a total experience of 15 years of teaching / research / extension as one of the qualifications for the post of professor.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail