Bhubaneswar, June 10: Many state universities have published advertisements for filling up their teachers' posts. The advertisements read: "The UGC Guideline 2010 shall be followed to determine the eligibility of teachers."

Academicians have, however, rued that the state government has strategically avoided the important features of the UGC guidelines while making the recruitments.

The Guideline 2010 is a package offered by the UGC - which includes new designations for teachers. "The teaching faculty are no more designated as readers and lecturers. According to the guideline, the designations have to be assistant professors and associate professors, respectively. However, the state government has been intentionally bringing out advertisements for appointment of readers and lecturers, simply because the new designation would require them to pay the teachers according to the UGC scale," said Utkal University professor.

This would also make the teachers eligible for benefits such as pay revision and age enhancement.

The eligibility criteria for an associate professor is eight-year teaching experience and 300 points as Academic Performance Index (API), while a professor needs to have 10 years of postgraduate teaching experience, along with 400 API points. The API includes teaching, research publications and other academic achievements.

"However, the advertisements calling for applications have kept similar eligibility criteria from readers and lecturers. They cannot selectively pick up the clauses that suit them," said another professor.

"The advertisements made by the universities do not follow the statute and violate the law. The UGC guideline needs to be implemented as a package and not as parts," said a member of the Federation of Odisha University Teachers' Association.