West Bengal university teachers flag autonomy concerns, oppose centralised faculty recruitment plan

All Bengal University Teachers' Association (ABUTA) on Wednesday expressed concern over reports that the state government was planning to set up a commission for recruiting teachers in government-aided universities and urged Governor RN Ravi to "intervene and seek withdrawal of the reported move". The higher education department has proposed setting up the West Bengal University Service Commission to centrally recruit teachers in state-aided universities and related higher educational institutions, a senior department official told PTI on Wednesday.

A panel has been constituted to examine the proposal, the official said. In a memorandum submitted to the governor, who is also the chancellor of state universities, the Left-affiliated university teachers' body alleged that the state government had unilaterally constituted an 11-member committee to examine the proposal without consulting universities, the teaching community or their representative organisations.

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ABUTA maintained that "institutional autonomy and academic freedom of teachers are fundamental to the functioning of universities", arguing that faculty recruitment is an essential academic responsibility of individual institutions.

ABUTA justifies statutory selection committee

The association's general secretary, Goutam Maity, said appointments should be based on the specific academic and research requirements of individual departments, taking into account candidates' subject expertise, research contributions and teaching abilities. "For this purpose, statutory selection committees involving representatives of the departments concerned were indispensable", the association said, adding that a centralised commission would not be able to adequately assess the institution-specific requirements of different universities.

"Any such interference in university autonomy would lead to an overall deterioration of higher education," Maity said in the memorandum. ABUTA also called for examining the West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2026, and argued that it provided for inter-university transfers of teachers. Such measures, according to the association, were aimed at establishing unrestricted state government control over universities and their faculty members.