COIMBATORE
The decision of making National Eligibility Test (NET) or State Level eligibility Test (SLET) compulsory for the posts of assistant professors and lecturers has received a positive response by the academics. The Supreme Court maintaining the UGC norms has decided this test to be compulsory for the lecturers.
This decision will certainly encourage the aspirants to take NET and SLET sincerely as only the candidates who have qualified these tests will be eligible to apply for the posts of professors and lecturers. Vaidhyasubramaniam S, dean, planning and development, Sastra University said that soon the institutions will have a qualified faculty with the implantation of this rule.
The regulations of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations, 2009 state that a NET or SLET passed candidate with a master's degree can appear for the interview for the post of assistant professor. It also states that the PhD students are exempted to appear for NET or SLET. The candidates with an MPhil or PhD before December 31, 2009 will are exempted from NET/SLET.
The Allahabad High Court on 6 April 2012 had considered the UGC Regulations satisfactory for the appointment of assistant.
However according to the Supreme Court bench of Justice R F Nariman and Justice T S Thakur said UGC itself has not implemented its recommendations.
They informed that if out of 11 criteria if 6 are satisfied by a candidate who has been was awarded a PhD degree by a university, he/she can be exempted from passing NET/SLET.
The percentage of candidates qualifying the mathematics and science subject in NET is considerably low. Although it might be difficult to recruit an efficient faculty in the beginning it is an excellent step for the long run.
S Swaminathan, president of NET SLET Association raising the concern of candidates informed that even though the number of people who have passed NET and SLET are few, still these have been unable to get hired by government and government aided institutions.