Kerala: CM Pinarayi Vijayan slams draft UGC regulations for faculty recruitment 2025

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday slammed the 'Draft UGC Regulations 2025', claiming that they take away states' rights to appoint Vice Chancellors and vest unchecked powers in the Chancellors.

Vijayan, in a post on 'X', also said that the draft regulations were part of the "Sangh Parivar agenda to consolidate power and subvert state autonomy". He urged all democratic forces to unite in resisting the "blatant assault on federal principles". "The 'Draft UGC Regulations 2025' undermines federalism by stripping states of their rights to appoint Vice Chancellors for state-run universities and vesting unchecked power in the Chancellor.

"Education is a concurrent subject, not a matter of central monopoly. This move is part of the Sangh Parivar agenda to consolidate power and subvert state autonomy. All democratic forces must unite to resist this blatant assault on federal principles," Vijayan said on X. His office also issued a statement in which Vijayan claimed that the draft UGC regulations contain a hidden plan to take away the rights of the states in the field of higher education.

"The new proposals are a continuation of the commercialisation, communalisation and centralisation policies of education imposed by the UGC and the central government," he alleged. The new norms which make the Chancellor the sole authority even with regard to the formation of the search committee for the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor (VC) are against federal principles and violate the basic values of the constitution, Vijayan claimed.

"The constitutional view that the Governor's actions should be subject to the instructions of the cabinet is being undermined here," he contended in his statement. The CM also alleged that the proposal in the regulations to appoint those without academic experience to the post of VC was "a sly way to bring Sangh Parivar followers into the university administration".

UGC draft 2025 'unacceptable'

He said he was strongly protesting against the move to make the Chancellor the supreme authority of state universities and added that encroachment on the rights of the states was "unacceptable". Earlier in the day, the CPI(M) Politburo demanded the withdrawal of the draft regulations, saying that it contains a provision which is a direct assault on a state's rights on the question of selecting VCs.

The draft UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment & Promotion of Teachers and Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2025, was released on Monday.

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According to the Union Education Ministry, the draft guidelines aim to give flexibility to the universities in appointing and promoting teachers and academic staff in their institutions.