UGC NET is ridiculous exam

Says Nayanjot Lahiri

• “unnoticed by most, the recruiting strategy is what has just taken a wrong turn. This is because even as Sibal must have been imparting the finishing touches to his agenda for opening up the higher education sector, his own University Grants Commission (UGC) was making the hiring of talented scholars more difficult. The UGC, presumably unknown to Sibal, wrote to all centrally-funded universities stating that the minimum qualifications required for the appointment of assistant professors must in future include the passing of a largely inane ‘national eligibility test’.
• This has been made mandatory even for those with PhD degrees. This would basically mean — for example — that an Indian with a doctoral degree from, say, Harvard or Cambridge would have to pass this ridiculously bureaucratic exam in order to teach at an Indian university. The likelihood is that every such applicant will simply put off applying for Indian university jobs.”