UGC Joint Secretary In Coimbatore BU
Rajesh Anand, Joint Secretary, University Grants Commission, speaking at Bharathiar University in Coimbatore on Tuesday. Research supervisors and guides should try to be ingenious. They should develop their own research methodologies and ensure that there is no recycling in research. Their projects should be original, said Rajesh Anand, Joint Secretary, University Grants Commission (UGC), here on Tuesday.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the short-term course for research guides organised by the UGC-Academic Staff College of Bharathiar University. He asked the guides and supervisors to go through the website of the UGC to make themselves aware of the research schemes available for faculty. “Every teacher should be aware of the various research facilities and schemes available. The UGC is very liberal to the faculty who come up with good research proposals. There are nearly five lakh research guides in the 408 universities. Though this is a good number, it does not ensure quality,” Mr. Anand said.
He asked research guides to be accessible to the students whom they were guiding. It was necessary for them to remain in touch and updated with the subject. He made a mention of the research awards given to teachers and the sponsorships extended to research seminars. G.J. Samathanam, Advisor, Department of Science and Technology, said the impact of Chandrayaan – 1 had been so high that many Information Technology professionals were quitting their lucrative jobs in IT companies to join the Indian Space Research Organisation.
“Events like the moon mission will bring about a national movement in evincing interest in science. The allotment made by the department for research should be used as a functional investment, which will be enabled by hybridisation of thought,” he said. Vice-Chancellor G. Thiruvasagam said the quality of research projects of scholars was drawing flak from many quarters.
“Scholars are exploited in many ways by some guides. There is rampant plagiarism with regard to the projects and the evaluation system is not uniform,” he lamented. To set the system right, he recommended that the UGC draw up an eligibility criteria for selection of guides. Since there were very few Ph.Ds in certain disciplines like computer science, catering science, etc., the UGC should relax the norms for selection of guides in these disciplines.
He asked the UGC to decide on remuneration for the guides for the time and effort they invested and avoid malpratices. R. Elango, Member Secretary, State Assessment and Accreditation Council, Tamil Nadu, K. Natarajan, Registrar, and A. Thanikodi, Director, UGC-Academic Staff College, of the university, spoke.
