The State Platform for Common School System – Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN) has demanded that the University Grants Commission withdraw its draft regulations 2024 and 2025 terming it unconstitutional.
The draft UGC regulations are a blatant attempt to usurp the State government’s powers and deny universities of autonomy, said P.B. Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary of the platform. If notified, the regulations would deny State governments any say in decision making in the field of education and universities will lose their autonomy and be reduced to just centres to implement the commission’s directions, Mr. Prince pointed out.
The Commission is only a guiding body with no power to penalise non-compliance of its guidelines and may withhold grants for non-acceptance of its guidelines but barring universities from offering degree programmes is beyond its mandate, he added. The activist said the UGC was attempting to redefine education and confine it to acquiring literacy and vocational skills. Since markets operate on demand and supply, the unskilled and semi-skilled workers would be exploited, just as it had happened during the 19th and 20th century, Mr. Prince cautioned.
The current system of establishing university and affiliated colleges has worked well and there is no need to replace the system, he remarked.
