Most private universities in the country do not pay salaries to faculty members on time, flout pay scale norms and engage teachers in non-academic activities, a section of academics has said.
Taking to Facebook to express concern about the delay in salary disbursal, the vice-chancellor of BITS Pilani, Prof. Ramgopal Rao, posted a message he said he had received from the VC of a private university, along with his own comments.
“I received this message today from a colleague working in a university, and it made me deeply sad. Posting it here with his permission. We speak of innovation, research and demographic dividend, but if faculty and staff in our educational institutions are not even paid their salaries on time, something is seriously wrong,” he wrote.
Rao urged the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to intervene.
In his message to Rao, the other VC had written that “the salary structure and disbursement practices in private universities remain largely unchecked by UGC and AICTE, as they are considered the private affair of each university”.
“However, the impact on employees is significant and often overlooked. While premier institutions like BITS, Ashoka, and Shiv Nadar may follow timely practices, a large number of private universities disburse faculty salaries only after 15th or even 20th of the month or sometimes once in two months. This delay causes severe hardship as most staff...,” he wrote.
Abhay Kumar, assistant professor of political science at Magadh University in Bodhgaya, said he resigned from a private university within 12 days of joining because of a poor work culture. He said the university did not pay dearness or house rent allowances and lacked accommodation facilities for faculty members. Kumar was offered a consolidated salary of ₹58,000 a month, which is the basic salary for an assistant professor.
Kumar said professors were assigned non-academic clerical work like entering student details on the university website and preparing documents for accreditation.
“The work culture in private universities is bad. They monitor class entry and exit timings of teachers and take action for being late even for five minutes. Quality of teaching doesn’t count,” Kumar said.
The Telegraph has emailed the UGC and the AICTE seeking their comments on the allegations of poor work culture and other violations. Their responses are awaited.