Bihar forms panel to examine recruitment system for assistant professors

Bihar has set up a high-level committee to review the existing structure for the recruitment of assistant professors in state universities and subsequently suggest “comprehensive reforms”, a top official said on Saturday.

The panel comprises retired IAS officers Amarjit Sinha and Sanjay Kumar, acclaimed physicist and Padma Shri awardee Prof H C Verma, and two other members.

As stated by Dipak Kumar Singh, additional chief secretary to the governor, Sanjay Kumar, additional secretary (university) in the governor’s secretariat, will serve as the member secretary of the committee.

“The committee will look into various aspects of the process of recruitment of assistant professors, including age, eligibility criteria, nature of examination and interview, relative weightage of different parameters, the issues involving guest lectures and other related aspects”, Singh said.

“The committee shall submit its report containing its findings and specific, actionable recommendations to the Lok Bhawan within a period of 90 days”, he added.

Singh highlighted that the notification for the formation of such a committee was “in compliance with an agreement reached on August 24 last between the governor and a delegation of the All PhD Holders and Researchers Association”.

Students, gathered under the banner of the association, had staged a protest for three weeks last month, with many of them participating in hunger strikes, at Gardani Bagh, which is the designated place in the state capital for staging such demonstrations.

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The protest was called off after a “two-hour-long” discussion between the delegation and Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Ata Hasnain.

The demands brought up by the association included increasing the maximum age limit for appointment of assistant professors to 55 years and recruitment through “written tests of objective type”.

The governor had assured the students that a committee comprising “educationists and administrators” would be formed “within 15 days” to look into their demands and, to address them, and suggest reforms in the existing system of recruitment, added Singh.