Unease over delay in circulation of SEP draft palpable in State universities insidelooknews

Amid the tussle between the State Government and the office of Governor and Chancellor to wield authority over matters of higher education, the sense of unease among universities and colleges in the State over the apparent delay in circulation of the draft of State Education Policy (SEP) is palpable, academicians say.

The draft of the SEP was submitted to the State Government by Justice Murugesan-led panel during July 2024, as an alternative to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

“The State Universities ought to be provided with the draft of SEP, and given the leverage to adopt at least those provisions that are compatible with NEP 2020, to navigate through the norms of the University Grants Commission,” former Vice-Chancellor of Madras and Madurai Kamaraj Universities P.K. Ponnuswamy said.

“It is quite difficult for State universities to resist the changes that the UGC intends to bring about in the arenas of higher education and research,” he said.

Another former Vice-Chancellor of a State University, requesting anonymity, said the UGC notification emphasising presence of its nominee in the V-C Selection Committees notwithstanding, the provisions for V-C appointment in the statutes of the individual universities is what actually mattered. The UGC nominee can be included in the V-C selection panels only after the Syndicates of the universities adopted resolutions to that effect and make changes in the statutes.

While the State government is staunchly opposed to NEP 2020 in toto, there is little scope for the universities to toe the line, as they are constrained to inevitably put themselves in the reckoning for the periodic NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Committee) rating and the annual NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework), the academics point out.