Staff Reporter
RONO HILLS, 5 Sep: Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) Vice Chancellor Prof Saket Kushwaha has agreed to meet all the demands of the RGU Teachers’ Association (RGUTA), the association’s president Dr Daniel Mize informed.
The development came after the RGUTA and the RGU Research Scholars’ Forum on Monday protested in front of the university’s administrative block and outside the VC’s office to have their demands met.
“The RGUTA has been placing our demands since July 2020 to the authorities and submitting several representations to the vice chancellor. However, no response has been made despite verbal assurance,” Dr Mize had said during the protest.
“By evening, a communication will be made through the vice chancellor’s office that all our four demands have been met,” said Dr Mize.
He added, however, that if the teachers’ demands are “not furnished through written assurance,” the RGUTA will resume its protest.
On reports that the teachers’ association is planning to submit other supplementary demands, Dr Mize clarified that “currently there are no such plans, and at this point of time it is not appropriate to seek it.”
On being asked about the VC’s allegation that the RGUTA was attempting to run a parallel administration, the RGUTA president said, “It is the personal view of the VC,” but added that, if the demands were unethical and immature, as alleged by the VC, “the VC would not have agreed to fulfil the demands.”
Responding to a question on the UGC’s and the NAAC’s decision to accept papers published only in journals listed by the UGC-CARE and not in peer reviewed journals, Dr Mize said, “The UGC is the authority of a university for framing up all the guidelines, and not the NAAC.” He added that “the NAAC is just an institute assessing authority, so there is no question for the NAAC to determine the qualifications for theses.”
He said, however, that the teachers will henceforth write for journals listed by the UGC-CARE.
Dr Mize also said that “no intimation was informed through the UGC, but suddenly a circular from the university was issued, stating that publishing only for the UGC-CARE list journals will be preferred.”
On RGU’s failure to be included in the NIRF list, he said, “It is difficult to accommodate international students. Besides, the university is located in a remote area where international students find it difficult to come.”
While acknowledging that the university could not make it to the NIRF ranking this time, he said that the NIRF ranking “is not a permanent ranking,” and added that “the teachers are working hard to be listed in the ranking.”
“However, the ranking has nothing to do with the publications of papers by the teachers,” he said.
Reporters tried to contact the vice chancellor regarding his agreeing to meet the demands, but he refrained from commenting.
