Carry out further regulation changes to ensure no increase in

In the wake of protests from teachers bodies, the HRD ministry today stepped in and directed UGC to further carry out amendments in its regulations so as to enure there would be no increase in workload of teachers.
UGC had recently carried out amendments to the 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, which had triggered protests.
In a statement released here today, the ministry said that it has reviewed the recent amendments carried out by UGC after which it has directed it to undertake amendments in the regulation.

"There will be no increase in the workload of teachers, after the amendments, in comparison with the workload prescribed earlier," the ministry said.
In the UGC regulations of 2010, the overall workload of Assistant Professors, Associate Professors and Professors in full employment was prescribed to be not less than 40 hours a week for 180 teaching days, the official statement said.
This workload remains unchanged, even with the amended regulation, it said.

Teachers bodies have been protesting UGC's new norms of performance assessment and demanding rollback in certain provisions.
The ministry in its statement also said, the direct teaching-learning hours to be devoted by Assistant Professors (16 hours), Associate Professors and Professors (14 hours) too will remain unchanged, as a consequence of the direction from the Ministry of HRD and subsequent notification by UGC.

In consonance with established academic and teaching traditions, and with a view to reinforcing a student-centric and caring approach, teachers are encouraged to work with students, beyond the structure of classroom teaching, it said.
Indicatively, this could entail mentoring, guiding and counselling students. In particular teachers would be the best placed to identify and address the needs of students who may be differently-abled, or require assistance to improve their academic performance, or to overcome a disadvantage.
There are no prescribed hours for such efforts, measured either in weeks or months.
While they will not be included in the calculation of the Academic Performance Indicators (API) scores, these are nevertheless important and significant activities that could be carried out by teachers.

Teachers of Delhi University had staged a demonstration outside UGC, demanding that the points-based API system used for evaluation of performance of academicians be withdrawn and pay review committee set up.