New Delhi, Oct. 13: The rules for recruiting faculty members of the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) have been amended, allowing an assistant professor to skip a senior grade and yet get promoted to associate professor.

The change, notified by the HRD ministry, will apply to the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), too.

Now, an assistant professor need not fulfil the requirement of three-year service with grade pay of Rs 8,000 to become eligible to associate professor.

Earlier, an assistant professor was required to have served six years after Ph.D, of which at least three years should have been at the level of assistant professor with academic grade pay of Rs 8,000. The revised rules say the requirement is six years after Ph.D at the level of assistant professor.

Assistant professors get a starting academic grade pay of Rs 6,000 initially and move up on basis of performance.

Sunil Sarangi, the former director of NIT Rourkela, felt that the amended rules would create anomalies. "A bright teacher who has got an academic grade pay of Rs 8,000 may lag behind another teacher who may not be so bright but has six years of post-Ph.D service," Sarangi said.

Two pay scales for the same position in the NITs have also been scrapped. Instead of the earlier Rs 10,000 and Rs 10,500, a uniform pay of Rs 10,500 will be given in the particular grade.